PR 3782 



1917a 



HH 



I 


BHBmiIIK 
HMflfifflflfl 


Hi 


Mm 
Hjwfl 


m|K) 


HH 

WSKBaSt 





*v <& *\ °? „ 



r oK 



^O* 



r or 




/ V^V V^V V^V 



«> 




.6*" ^ *• • » • A <. *'7Vr* .&*" ^> '• • * * A <» 

» ^ V 















4 o^ 




^0^ 




^ A^ * 



^r 



W 



■a? ^ 



^»*4 ^O ,^ 4 0»t, ^ ^ .t».. ^ 






?«+*. v 

































*V °^ "" A 



^cy 













^ Ay 




<>t, <-&• 



**r^ 









*** A*' 















**<* 












A*-^ 



.-'JJ*, o- 




|> . * * < 



^b, *o • * * A 







* «? «^, o^ 








^9' 









**.-*♦ 



^;v,/*4m\.^ v ^^v>^ 



Edward Young's "Conjectures on 

Original Composition" in 

England and Germany 



BY 



MARTIN WILLIAM STEINKE, Ph.D. 



Amrrirana (kmnanira 

Number 28 



' '. ■■ r ' ' 



& £ STt CO., 

NEW YORK 



Americana Germanica 

MONOGRAPHS DEVOTED TO THE COMPARATIVE 
STUDY OF THE 

Literary, Linguistic and Other Cultural Relations 
of Germany and America 

EDITOR 
MARION DEXTER LEARNED 

University of Pennsylvania 
(See List al the End of the Book) 



Edward Young's "Conjectures on 

Original Composition' 1 in 

England and Germany 



BY 

MARTIN WILLIAM STEINKE, Ph.D. 



Amenratta fematura 

Number 28 



&. E. STECHERT>CO., 
NEW YORK 

1917 



Americana Germanica 

MONOGRAPHS DEVOTED TO THE COMPARATIVE 
STUDY OF THE 

Literary, Linguistic and Other Cultural Relations 
of Germany and America 

EDITOR 
MARION DEXTER LEARNED 

University of Pennsylvania 

(See List at the End of the Book) 



Edward Young's "Conjectures on 

Original Composition" in 

England and Germany 



BY 

MARTIN WILLIAM STEINKE, Ph.D. 



Ammratta (§* rmautra 

Number 28 



F. C. STECHERT CO., Inc. 

NEW YORK 

1917 



^ 



$$> 



rv 



^ 



°v 



(JJ 



- 53SS7 



/y 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I page 

Young's Conjectures in England 1 

Chapter II 
Young's Conjectures in Germany 17 

Chapter III 

Conjectures on Original Composition in a Letter to the Author of 

Sir Charles Grandison 43 

Appendix 1 74 

Appendix II 110 



INTRODUCTION 

This new edition of Young's Conjectures on Original Composition, 
prefaced with an essay on them, will prove to be at least in good season. 
It is the first handy separate reproduction of them. The reprint in the 
Shakespeare Jahrbuch, however excellent, is too much out of sight and 
out of reach of the average student and the general reader, and the 
editions of Young's works which contain the treatise have become very 
rare. The treatise is, furthermore, a significant literary document. It 
is an important, inspiring, and instructive piece of eighteenth century 
literary criticism, a representative product of its times as well as one of 
the two best works of its author, and it is, finally, an object of strange 
neglect on the part of students of English and of critics as much as it is 
an object of attention and speculation on the part of the German literary 
historians. A new edition of this remarkable and neglected essay will 
therefore not only be in place, but may also contribute to a more intense 
study of comparative literature and aesthetics. 

The present edition of the Conjectures on Original Composition is an 
accurate reprint of the first edition of 1759, and the changes made by 
their author in the second edition, printed in the same year, are carefully 
added in footnotes. Punctuation and spelling, however, have been 
modernized, following the example of John Doran in his edition of Young's 
works, because many a sentence punctuated according to the old way 
says something different from the meaning it assumes when interpreted 
according to the present method of punctuation. For an almost fac- 
simile reproduction of the treatise the Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. 
XXXIX, pp. 16-42, may be consulted. 

The introductory essay on the Coniectures on Original Composition 
attempts first to ascertain their origin, original meaning, and role in 
English literature. It deals with the history of their contents, with 
the terminology and principal ideas, and with their fundamental points 
of view. Finally it discusses their significance to the English reader 
and writer, past and present. 

The essay next outlines the relation of the Conjectures on Original 
Composition to German literature. It deals particularly with their 



relation to the so-called Storm and Stress Period, attempting first to show 
where and to what extent and effect the ideas contained in Young's 
treatise occur in the works of the Storm mid Stress writers, and then to 
ascertain whether these writers got their ideas from Young's treatise 
or from other sources. It offers, in other words, a reconsideration of the 
important question whether Young's essay and English thought in 
general really exerted the dominating influence upon the rise of the 
Storm and Stress Period with which they are often accredited. 

Professor J. Goebel, who suggested this study, and Professor 0. E. 
Lessing are being remembered gratefully for their kind assistance and 
encouragement. M. S. 



CHAPTER I 
YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN ENGLAND 

In the year 1759 there was published in London an anonymous 
literary epistle entitled Conjectures on Original Composition in a Letter 
to the Author of Sir Charles Grandison. It was written by Edward 
Young (1683-1765), who is best known as the author of the Night 
Thoughts. It sought the attention of the public by virtue of appearing 
in the form of an open letter to Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), well 
known in his day as a London printer and still better known, both then 
and today, as the great novelist. In its first printed form it comprised 
a book in rather large type and, consequently, of one hundred and 
eleven pages. Near the end of this pamphlet the reader will find a 
reprint of the earliest edition of Young's Conjectures, as the treatise here- 
after will be called for short, and at the bottom of the pages he will 
find the changes with which the treatise soon appeared in a second 
edition. 

We shall approach a detailed study of the Conjectures by way of 
several preliminaries necessary for a right understanding of the treatise. 
We shall give our attention first to the author. 

Leaving a detailed study of his literary career until later, we shall 
observe now only in general who the writer of the Conjectures was. 
Edward Young (1683-1765) was the son of the rector of Upham, England. 
Concerning his career as a student his biographers say that he rose very 
slowly and that his good standing rested more on the reputation of his 
father than on any merit of his own. They report, on the other hand, 
that he became a brilliant talker and that he proved able to cope in argu- 
ment with the noted deist Tindal. He was graduated as B. C. L. at 
the age of thirty-one, and as D. C. L. at the age of thirty-six. Then 
he set out on a literary career in London, being admitted to Addison's 
circle. His earliest products were epistles and poems dedicated with 
"fulsome flattery" to various persons of influence with the purpose of 
finding a Maecenas or obtaining a good political or ecclesiastical post 
for the author. Consequently all biographical accounts of him bristle 
with unpleasant epithets of himself and his writings, such as preferment- 
hunter, flatterer, mixture of bombast and platitude, too rhetorical, too 
much antithesis, insincere, absurd. In knack for satire and epigram 
he was, however, the closest rival of Pope. His series of seven satires, 
which he collected finally under the title Love of Fame, the Universal 



2 YOUNG S CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 

Passion, met with such approval and reward on the part of the various 
persons to whom they were dedicated that the author reaped a fortune 
from them. 

Young figured also as a dramatist. The first of three tragedies which 
he produced was played only nine evenings and was then ridiculed, 
among other recent plays, by Fielding, in his Tom Thumb. Another 
drama of Young's, however, enjoyed a long popularity. His fame as an 
author is, nevertheless, not founded on the works so far mentioned; 
it rests on his Night Thoughts (1742-45). The last, although obviously 
imitative of Paradise Lost, The Seasons, and the Essay on Man, has been 
translated into seven foreign languages. Its success is said to have been 
enormous, and it can still be read with interest. 

Prior to the production of the Night Thoughts, when near the age of 
fifty, Young took holy orders. After being chaplain to the King for 
some time thereafter, he was given the rectory of Welwyn, near London, 
in the service of which he passed the remainder of his life. When in his 
seventy-sixth year, and as the last of his more ambitious literary endeav- 
ors, he gave to the world his Conjectures on Original Composition. 

Concerning their publication we find, in the first place, that two 
editions of them were printed in the year 1759. The first edition, which 
is generally said to have appeared in May, was announced and quoted 
in the May number of the Gentleman 's Magazine and in the same words 
in the May issue of Scot's Magazine. These advertisements seem, though, 
to have preceded the printed edition and must have been based on the 
manuscript. According to a letter from the publisher to the author on 
May 29th, the first edition was not yet off the press on this date. 1 

In this letter the printer speaks not only of having "written urgently" 
so as not to "baulk the sale," but he also requests the author to shorten 
what he has said about Addison's death and to put it at the end of the 
treatise. From this letter we learn also that the Conjectures were 
probably altered between May 29 and their publication to this effect. 
With these data, on one side, and with the assertions of various historians 
on the other, all upholding the opinion that the Conjectures were written 
this early, it follows that their first edition appeared sometime in June. 
And the second edition with certain changes, which are given in footnotes 
in the present reprint, followed after a few months, in 1759. 

We want to know also just when the Conjectures were composed. 
The letter from Richardson to Young which has just been quoted dis- 

1 Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. II, p. 55. 



YOUNG S CONJECTURES IN ENGLAND 3 

closes furthermore that Dr. Johnson was somehow concerned with them. 
From this fact Professor Brandl concludes that they may have been 
evoked by Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, which had been published about 
two months earlier and which in the tenth chapter likewise speaks of 
literary originality versus imitation. 2 If that were the case, they would 
have been written sometime during April or May, in 1759. The follow- 
ing passage from a letter by Richardson to Mrs. Delany on September 
11, 1758, shows, however, that the Conjectures date farther back, either 
in manuscript or at least in plan: "Dr. Young . . . will one day 
oblige the world with a small piece on original writing and writers." 3 

By way of further preliminary we may consider also the intricate 
problem as to what evoked the Conjectures. The earliest answer is 
Warton's assertion that they were written in reply to Pope's declaration 
that nothing remains to the moderns but to recommend their productions 
by the imitation of the ancients. 4 Later factors, and therefore more 
probable causes of the Conjectures, are Jospeh Warton's Essay on the 
Genius and Writings of Pope (1756), which was dedicated to Young and 
seems to have been used by him, and a certain anonymous Letter to Mr. 
Mason on the Marks of Imitation, which appeared in 1757. 5 That 
Dr. Johnson's Rasselas was the principal incentive to the writing of the 
Conjectures, as Professor Brandl concludes, seems improbable in view of 
the letter to which I have already referred. This letter written Septem- 
ber 11, 1758, or six months before Rasselas appeared, shows that the 
Conjectures were at least already planned, if not already written, at that 
time. 6 Young himself tells us that he wrote his Conjectures in reply 
to an inquiry by a friend of his. In the introduction to them he says 
to Richardson, " You remember that your worthy patron and our common 
friend put some questions on the serious drama at the same time when he 
desired our sentiments on original composition," and adds that he will 
now "hazard some conjectures" on these subjects. This statement, 
which does not show who the "worthy patron and common friend" was, 
permits of various interpretations. According to Professor Brandl 
it refers to Colley Cibber (1671-1751). 7 The latter enjoyed the com- 
pany and intimate friendship of Young, particularly in 1745, on account 

2 Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. XXXIX, p. 12. 

3 Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. IV, p. 118. 

4 El win, Works of Pope, Vol. I, p. 9. 

6 Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. XXXIX, p. 11. 

* Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. IV, p. 118. 

7 Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. XXXIX, p. 12. 



4 YOUNG S CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 

of their "relation in their dramatic capacity." 8 In a letter written to 
Richardson in 1754 Young speaks, moreover, of a Mr. Cibber and the 
stage. 9 At about this time Richardson and Colley Cibber were also 
writing to each other, 10 all of which are reasons for thinking that Colley 
Cibber might have been the "worthy patron and common friend" in 
question. 

We have equally good reasons, on the other hand, for inquiring whether 
the person in question was not Theophilus Cibber (1703-1758), a success- 
ful London actor, playwright, and author, a son of the former Cibber. 
Between 1745 and 1758 he acted for several years at Covent Garden, 
then for some time at the Haymarket, and later again at Covent Garden. 
In 1753 he published a history of actors and actresses 11 and his Lives 
of the Poets, and in 1756 his Dissertations on Theatrical Subjects. 12 These 
works, besides being forerunners of the Conjectures as to time, were 
forerunners in some respects also as to content. Their author discusses 
subjects similar to those treated in the Conjectures. He writes against 
neglecting the heart and says that emotions must come from it. He 
speaks of men of genius, and of immortal Shakespeare as the great 
example. He discusses Shakespeare's strong and lively imagination, 
his spirit and fire, emphasizes the imagination as the poet's principal 
working faculty, speaking of creations of the poet's imagination, and 
declares, "Nothing evinces want of genius, invention, or taste, more than 
an awkward imitation." In view of such similarity as to thought 
between these two men, not to mention the strong probability that 
they were intimate associates, it seems probable that Theophilus Cibber 
may have been the person of whom Young speaks as having given him 
occasion to write the Conjectures. 

It seems possible also that Aaron Hill (1685-1750) may have been 
that person. He wrote many letters to actors concerning their art, 
addressed literary disquisitions to Pope and Bolingbroke, and he is the 
author of a treatise entitled Critical Reflexions on Propriety in Writing. 
Since he had such an interest in literary criticism and since he and 
Young belonged to the same literary circle, Hill may have been the person 

8 Doran, Works of Young, Vol. I, p. XIV. 

9 Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. II, p. 32. 
"Same, Vol. II, p. 177. 

11 Theophilus Cibber, The Lives and Characters of the Most Eminent Actors and 
Actresses of Great Britain and Ireland. 

12 Dissertations on Theatrical Subjects as they have several times been delivered to the 
Public, by Theophilus Cibber. 



YOUNG S 'CONJECTURES IN ENGLAND 5 

who evoked the Conjectures. It may be noted also that Walter Thomas 
declares, without, however, verifying his statement, that it was "without 
doubt" Arthur Onslow. 13 

In view of these conflicting statements and in view also of similar 
instances in Young's works, which will be pointed out later, it seems 
even possible that the statement in question was made merely as a 
polite pretext for writing the Conjectures. 

We shall now survey the literary career of Young before and during 
the time he wrote the Conjectures. It will be a necessary preparation 
for a detailed consideration of them. In many instances the Conjectures 
cannot be understood as they were meant, if interpreted without refer- 
ence to their author. By referring in ambiguous cases to his point of 
view and his way of thinking and expressing himself as revealed in his 
other writings and in the history of his life, we may be able to find the 
original meaning and the only correct interpretation of any passage 
in question. 

Young commenced his long literary career preceding the Conjectures 
with half a dozen epistles of literary, political, and personal contents, 
addressed to various prospective patrons. Besides being a conventional 
type of literature of the time, they concern rather traditional subjects 
and are executed in the conventional manner. They are written in 
polished heroic couplets and abound in witty turns, clever analogies, 
antitheses, paradoxes, and bombastic exaggerations. They are, in 
other words, products of the time and school of Pope. Two of them, 
the Epistles to Mr. Pope Concerning the Authors of the Age (1730), are 
particularly remarkable as such. In these Young expounds, praises, 
and embraces the neo-classical creed and lauds Pope and Addison for 
establishing it. In the first he speaks as a fellow-combatant in the 
pseudo-classical ranks, opposing the extravagances of the Marini, or 
so-called "Metaphysical," school and demanding conformity to the 
currents of French influence which were constituting essentially the 
neo-classical movement. He insists particularly on rational and clearly 
expressed contents and polished verse form. In the second epistle, par- 
ticularly, he interprets in detail and indorses with praise what are alto- 
gether Pope's "precepts how to write and how to live." 

A further product of Young's neo-classical period are his satires, 
collected later under the title " Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. 
In them he proved himself a worthy rival of his master Pope. Here 
belongs also his Centaur not Fabulous, in Six Letters to a Friend on the 

15 Le Pocte Edward Xoung, pp. 469 f . 



6 YOUNG S CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION" 

Life in Vogue. It is a didactic, moralizing, non-original discourse, writ- 
ten in the spirit and manner of the moral weeklies of that time. The 
same thing is true of his Reflexions on the Public Situation of the King- 
dom, except that this poem is written in blank verse. His three trage- 
dies, finally, are in most respects also characteristic of his neo-classic 
period. Busiris (1719) is composed according to artificial rules of criti- 
cism, such as those of the school of Corneille and Voltaire, and resembles 
in this respect Addison's Cato and similar works of that period. The 
same facts are true about The Brothers, a play also belonging to this 
period of his literary career, although not published until 1753. The 
Revenge (1721), however, while sharing many of the neo-classic charac- 
teristics of the other two plays, is in some respects Shakespearean. 
It is a variation upon the theme of Othello, and its language resembles 
in some instances that of Shakespeare. We see here the beginning of 
Young's participation in the Shakespearean movement, of which he 
became later a most ardent promoter. 

Passing over various small and insignificant writings we come now 
to the five of his twenty-five works which are, at least in certain respects, 
distinctly something more than neo-classic. The Last Day (1713) is a 
neo-classic poem as to verse form and diction, but as to contents it is 
Biblical, and was found to be an imitation of Milton. 14 It came 
in the wake of the devoted studies and ardent recommendations of 
Milton by Dennis, Addison's Spectator papers on Milton, and Touson's 
edition of Milton's poetical works, and identifies Young with the Mil- 
tonic revival. His Paraphrase on a Part of the Book of Job (1719) belongs 
likewise to the Miltonic variety of sacred poetry. Although it is neo- 
classic as to its polished heroic couplets and as to its purpose of pre- 
senting the Book of Job in a form "more suitable to our notions of regu- 
larity," it shows how the author developed his Miltonic or Biblical 
' style, of which he speaks later as original and creative composition. 
He indicates, in footnotes to the poem, how he studied the style of the 
Bible, speaking of the Book of Job as the noblest and most ancient poem 
in the world, commenting on the sublimity and beautiful imagery of 
various passages in the Old Testament, and deducing principles of effective 
description. 

This development of a new literary style, wholly different from the 
neo-classic, was continued by Young in a Vindication of Providence, or a 
True Estimate of Human Life (1728), which is a treatise in prose developed 
from one of his sermons. After many critical observations and infer- 

14 Hettner, Geschichtc der engl. Literlaur des 18ten Jhd., p. 489. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN ENGLAND 7 

ences, some of which we shall discuss later, he states that he endeavors 
to show in a way yet unattempted that the genius and eloquence of the 
psalms, Prophets, and Job are superior to those of all other writings, 
that he wants to raise the "estimation of these compositions as compo- 
sitions," and adds that some parts of them have "reached such a height 
of perfection that human nature has not ideas to carry her to a con- 
ception of anything beyond it." He says, on the other hand, that there is 
"not something beyond all human composition in this," and with Mil- 
ton as his model and with Longinus, whom he quotes particularly in the 
Last Day, as his classical authority, we see him acquire the Scriptural and 
Miltonic style of composition. In his Night Thoughts, finally, the most\ 
successful English rival of Paradise Lost, we find his new art of compo- 
sition at its best. This poem contains in practice to a large extent 
those principles of literary composition which are preached in the Con- 
jectures. 

This survey of Young's works written prior to the Conjectures shows 
the different phases and distinctive periods in his literary career. He was 
first a thorough and successful neo-classicist. Then he developed into a 
leader of the Miltonic revival, which was one of the principal phases of 
the Romantic Movement in England. He participated also in the 
Shakespearean movement of the time, as dramatist and in the Conjec- 
tures, which was another phase of the English Romantic Movement. 
He seems to speak, finally, as a follower of a third phase of this move- 
ment, that is, of the Spenserian Revival, when he talks in the Conjec- 
tures about the fairyland of fancy in which genius may wander wild. 
Spenser was at this time looked back to as being "all imagination and 
exaggeration; the poet of dreamland, of fairy and supernatural life," 15 
and this reawakened interest in the poet showed itself in particular 
emphasis on the fancy, or imagaination, as the poetic faculty. As an 
author Young is, in other words, a versatile and vacillating follower of 
the trends and vogues of his time. His works, particularly the Con- 
jectures, can therefore be rightly understood only with reference to their 
author and the external circumstances of their origin. 

Let us examine here also the extent and nature of Young's reading 
by noting briefly what writers he mentions, quotes, or discusses, in his 
various works. By scanning all his works in regard to this question I 
find that he touches upon twenty contemporary English writers. Of 
these he mentions and quotes most frequently Addison, Pope, Richardson, 

15 Phelps, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 47. 



8 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

and Swift, besides being personally acquainted with them. He associated 
intimately also with Colley Cibber, Tickell, Thomson, and Walpole, 
although he refers but rarely to them in his writings. Of the older English 
authors he deals most with Bacon, Milton, and Shakespeare. Of 
modern foreign literatures he takes notice only of that of the Romance 
languages. He mentions Boileau, Cervantes, Rabelais, Thuanus, and 
Voltaire, although each but once or twice. The Bible, particularly the 
Old Testament, he uses in a literary way more frequently than any other 
book. In the ancient Latin authors, furthermore, he was thoroughly 
steeped. He introduces no less than twenty in his various writings and 
quotes some of them up to forty times. He quotes also from one to 
three times from each of a dozen Greek authors. Although Young 
surely read hundreds of books, particularly English works, which he 
does not mention in his writings, our foregoing data show that he was 
primarily a literary classicist. 

The next problem in this connection will naturally be to determine the 
relation of the Conjectures to other works. Their author declares that 
they are an original production. In their second edition he inserted the 
statement that he was writing on a topic on which he had never seen 
anything written before. This statement seems, however, to have been 
made only to make a favorable impression on the readers. Some years 
ago Professor Brandl found instances in which the Conjectures are not 
without precedent. 10 Following his example I continued the investiga- 
tion until finding earlier parallel passages for all important statements 
in the Conjectures. These prototypes have or may have served as sources 
or models, either consciously or unconsciously, and thus weaken 
Young's claim of originality. The evidence for this will be found in 
Appendix I. 

The erroneous idea of some recent literary historians that the Con- 
jectures are notably independent as to origin, has a parallel in the opinion 
that they have a profound, original meaning. Young's various works 
are conventional, as we have seen, conforming in type, subject matter, 
and treatment to the precedents of this or that literary school. His 
literary criticism, wherever we find it in his works, is likewise conven- 
tional. The Conjectures, in particular, are conventional, and to be 
understood rightly they must be read with reference to the time and 
circumstances which produced them. Not only their theme, arguments, 
and terminology have prototypes in sources that were in vogue in 

"Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 1-11. 



YOUNG S CONJECTURES IN ENGLAND 9 

Young's time, but their fundamental points of view are also traceable 
to the various currents of thought, or literary schools, with which Young 
identified himself at various times in his career. 

The literary schools in which not only his poetic productions but also 
his literary criticism are rooted are the Neo-classic and the Romantic. 
He began his career as a critic, even his campaign in the interest of orig- 
inality, which culmintated in the Conjectures, as one of the Neo-classicists. 
The latter stand for opposition to the preceding "Metaphysical," or 
Italian school, which they condemned for the extravagances of its literary 
forms and language and particularly for its dull practice of imitation 
and consequent lack of sense, of wit, or French esprit. In comparison 
with the preceding Italian school the French school of Pope stood, further- 
more, as strongly for originality as did the Romantic in comparison with 
that of Pope. In the Dunciad and in the introduction to his Homer 
Pope himself is about as forceful a preacher of originality as Young. 
It was in the school of Pope that Young acquired his first principles of 
literary criticism, and while he later repudiated many of these, he 
retains some of them even in the Conjectures. For the most part, however, 
particularly in the Conjectures, these neo-classic principles had to give 
place to the principles of other literary schools. Instead of exalting 
the ancients over the moderns, as Pope did all his life, Young became a 
defender of the moderns. As soon as the Romantic Movement became 
established, he identified himself with the various phases of it, with the 
Miltonic revival, the Shakespearean movement and the Spenserian 
revival. It is principally this Romantic Movement of which the Con- 
jectures are a product. Of these various currents of thought during 
Young's days we must take cognizance to understand the Conjectures 
rightly. 

Let us trace them briefly. Milton is spoken of several times in the 
Conjectures, although only in the arguments about the relative merits 
of the modern and the ancient writers. It is only surprising that the 
Miltonic revival, in which Young had participated so thoroughly before, 
as we have seen, and which had already become so general, does not 
play a bigger role in the Conjectures. The Shakespearean movement, 
which had also become very strong and widespread by this time, is felt 
more distinctly in the Conjectures. Shakespeare, like Milton, is dis- 
cussed in them principally as a modern man of genius who is not only 
equal but even superior to the ancients. We have less obvious but, never- 
theless, unmistakable traces of the Spenserian revival in the Conjec- 
tures. It would be strange if none of this movement were apparent, 



10 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

for it had already assumed large proportions and is said to have been 
more important in English Romanticism than the Shakespearean and 
Miltonic movements. 17 "Spenser was the poet of Romanticism as 
Pope was of Classicism. They stand exactly in opposition; the one all 
intellect, didactic and satirical; the poet of town life and fashionable so- 
ciety; the other all imagination and exaggeration; the poet of dream- 
land, of woods and streams, of fairy and supernatural life." 18 We have 
traces of Spenser and particularly of various commentators on Spenser 
in the Conjectures where Young speaks of the fairyland of fancy where 
genius may wander wild, where it has a creative power and may reign 
arbitrarily over its own empire of chimeras, ranging unconfined in the 
wide field of nature, making what discoveries it can, sporting with its 
infinite objects uncontrolled, and painting them as wantonly as it will. 
Further signs of Spenser's influence are certain references to magic, 
such for example, as these: "A genius differs from a good understanding 
as a magician from a good architect; that raises his structure by means 
invisible; this by the skillful use of the common tools. Our spirits 
rouse at an original; that is a perfect stranger, and all throng to learn 
what news from a foreign land. And though it comes, like an Indian 
prince, adorned with feathers only, having little of weight. — If an orig- 
inal, by being as excellent as new, adds admiration to surprise, then are 
we at the writer's mercy; on the strong wing of his imagination we are 
snatched from Britain to Italy, from climate to climate, from pleasure to 
pleasure; we have no home, no thought, of our own; till the magician 
drops his pen." These passages are written in the spirit and the language 
of the Spenserians. 

In approaching the principal issues in the Conjectures we come first 
to Young's discussions of literary originality. He speaks here partly 
like a Neo-classicist combatting the imitation and dullness of the pre- 
ceding Italian school, but mostly as a defender of the modern authors 
against the ancients; that is, as a champion of independent, original 
attempts instead of translation and imitation of the old classical writers. 
Speaking sometimes of original authors and sometimes of original works, 
he showers much flowery but vague praise on them, such as the following: 
" Originals are the fairest flowers of a mind of genius" ; " originals are great 
favorites, for they are great benefactors"; "a translation differs from an 
original as the moon differs from the sun"; "originals shine like comets." 
Contrary to our natural expectation, however, he does not define origin- 

H Phelps, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, p. 47. 
11 Same. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN ENGLAND 11 

ality directly, saying: "I shall not enter into the curious inquiry of what 
is, or is not, strictly speaking, original, content with what all must 
allow, that some compositions are more so than others." We have to 
gather, therefore, from scattered and more or less indirect statements 
what he really says about originality. 

As one of the latest participants in the debate over the ancients 
and the moderns, he denounces and forbids translations and imitations 
of the ancient works. "Let us build our compositions with the spirit 
and in the taste of the ancients," he says, "but not with their materials." 
Then he gives a direct rule for achieving originality and excellence, say- 
ing in substance: Imitate the ancient authors, but imitate aright. He 
that imitates the Iliad does not imitate Homer, but he who takes the 
same method which Homer took, which is the method of writing without 
using any other works as models. Imitate not the composition, but the 
man. 

It is not by any particular sordid theft, Young says further, that 
we can be the better for the ancients, but we can learn from them inde- 
pendence in thinking and composing, and, he adds, we have their beau- 
ties as stars to guide us, and their faults as rocks to be shunned. He 
also says the ancients are forever our revered masters in composition 
when masters are needed, but some of the moderns are natural born 
writers and do not need teachers and models. Thus he permits of 
literary rules only as crutches which are a "needful aid to the lame, but 
an impediment to the strong." "By the bounty of nature," he says 
also, "we are as strong as our predecessors," and, "we ought to exert 
more than we do, and, on exertion, our probability of success is greater 
than we conceive." Young's entire discussion of originality, in short, 
consists in arguments against translations and imitation, and for inde- 
pendence in thinking and writing, and this whole argument is developed 
by him, and his many predecessors along this line, out of the long and 
general debate over the ancients and the moderns. 

The next great issue in the Conjectures is the discussion of genius. 
Young's most direct explanation of genius reads as follows: "What, 
for the most part, mean we by genius but the power of accomplishing 
great things without the means generally reputed necessary to that end? 
A genius differs from a good understanding as a magician from a good 
architect; that raises his structure by means invisible; this by the skillful 
use of common tools. — In the fairyland of fancy genius may wander wild; 
there it has a creative power and may reign arbitrarily over its own 
empire of chimeras. The wide field of nature also lies open before it, 



12 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

where it may range unconfined, make what discoveries it can, and sport 
with its infinite objects uncontrolled, as far as visible nature extends, 
painting them as wantonly as it will." What he is speaking of here is 
what he calls in the preceding paragraph original, unindebted energy of 
mind, or strong poetic imagination. That he is not speaking of genius 
as supernatural is shown in the remainder of the statement, in which he 
adds that the most unbounded and exalted genius can give us only 
what by his own or other's eyes has been seen, though that infinitely 
compounded, raised, burlesqued, dishonored, or adorned. He speaks 
likewise of the imagination working in the realm of fancy where he says 
"so boundless are the bold excursions of the human mind that in the 
vast void beyond real existence it can call forth shadowy beings and 
unknown worlds, as numerous, as bright, and perhaps as lasting, as the 
stars; such quite original beauties we may call paradisaical," and he calls 
these possibilities "an ample area for renowned adventure in original 
attempts." 

In various cases, indeed, the Conjectures speak of divine genius and 
divine poetic inspiration, which has given rise to various speculations as 
to a remote religious or theosophic origin and a deep, mystic meaning 
in the Conjectures. In regard to learning and natural genius they say, 
" the first informs, the second inspires, for genius is from heaven, learning 
from man; learning is borrowed knowledge; genius is knowledge innate 
and quite our own." Of "true poetry" they say in a similar way, 
"real, though unexampled, excellence is its only aim; nor looks it for any 
inspiration less than divine." In these passages, which are the most 
direct ones about a divine nature of genius and poetic inspiration, we 
find, however, that the term divine is used only in a figurative way to 
denote excellent, and that it is not used in a religious or philosophical 
sense. It is used here only as it is applied elsewhere in speaking of the 
divine Iliad, of Homer as a divine author, and of the dawn of divine genius 
with Homer and Demosthenes. Divine inspiration of secular poetry is 
even directly repudiated, and denouncing the "fable of poetic inspira- 
tion," Young says, "a poet of a strong imagination, and stronger vanity, 
at the mere compliment of the world, might think himself truly inspired, 
for enthusiasts of all kinds do no less." All further statements of Young 
to the effect that genius partakes of something divine are only quo- 
tations or allusions to this effect, and mostly ancient quotations or allu- 
sions. It was due to this language, however, that Young's friends spoke 
of his "next to divine vehemence with which original writing is recom- 
mended." 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN ENGLAND 13 

Young not alone deprecates supernatural inspiration of the literary 
genius, as pointed out before, but his whole religion, philosophy, and 
literary criticism, as found throughout his works, are contrary to a mystic 
conception of a divinely inspired poetic genius. His conception of God 
and man is not mystic, but rationalistic, as may be pointed out briefly. 
The great Father, he says, kindled at one flame the world of rationals; 
one spirit poured from spirits' awful fountain; poured Himself through all 
their souls, and if they continue rational, as made, resorbs them all into 
Himself again. 19 . . . The Deity is all reason in his nature, conduct, 
and commands. The great, invariable, eternal alternative throughout 
his creation is reason or ruin. 20 The soul of man, he continues, is a 
native of the skies and an illustrious stranger in this foreign land, all 
pervading, all-conscious, a particle of energy divine. 21 Finally he 
exclaims: "O for a joy from reason, joy from that which makes man a 
man." 22 

In a similar way he says, there is nothing mysterious in the Gospel 
but things we cannot understand because of the limitations of our 
intellect. 23 "A mystery explained," he declares, "is a mystery destroyed: 
for what is a mystery but a thing not known?" 24 He says even, "faith 
is entirely the result of reason." 25 

This philosophy is the contrary of mysticism. It corresponds rather 
with the doctrines of Aristotle, and Young may have gotten it from his 
thorough study of the works of Thomas Acquinas, which are essentially 
commentaries on the teaching of Aristotle. 

Young maintained this same rationalism in his literary criticism. 
Thought, reflection, he says, make poetry: 

"Think frequently, think close, read nature, turn 
Men's manners o'er, and half your volumes burn. 
To nurse with quick reflexion, be your strife, 
Thoughts born from present objects, warm from life : 
When most unsought, such inspirations rise, 
Slighted by fools and cherished by the wise. 
Expect peculiar fame from these alone; 
These make an author, these are all your own."" 

" Doran, Works of Young, Vol. I, p. 59. 

20 Same, Vol. II, p. 453. 

21 Same, Vol. I, pp. 77 and 136. 

22 Same, Vol. I, p. 183. 

23 Same, Vol. II, p. 434. 
M Same, Vol. II, p. 430. 
M Same, Vol. II, p. 422. 
M Same, Vol. II, p. 43. 



14 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

What wealth in intellect, that sovereign power, 
Commanding with omnipotence of thought 
Creations new in fancy's field to rise!" 27 

In all compositions, says Young further, judgment should bear the 
supreme sway, and a beautiful imagination, as its mistress, should be 
subdued to its dominion. 28 Such views, moreover, are voiced not only 
in his earliest works, but also in the Conjectures. He speaks in the 
latter of genius as "exquisite edge of thought" and "intellectual light 
and heat," and questions "whether genius is more evident in the sublime 
flights and beauteous flowers of poetry or in the profound penetrations, 
and marvelously keen and minute distinctions called the thorns of the 
school." He says also, a noble author thinks and composes, and not 
merely reads and writes; the epic poet thinks, the tragedian feels; and, 
finally, a genius implies the rays of the mind concentrated and deter- 
mined to some particular point. These statements and the various 
restrictions as to "divine genius," including the repudiation of divine 
inspiration and culminating in the assertion that the greatest genius 
can give us "only what by his own or others eyes has been seen" reveal 
that the Conjectures give likewise a rationalistic interpretation of literary 
originality and genius. 

These observations will suffice to show that the Conjectures were 
developed in a conventional manner within the field of literary criticism, 
and that they are not a prodigious, original creation, as their author 
wanted to make it seem by his introductory statement. Our observa- 
tions will suffice also to show that the Conjectures have not been devel- 
oped out of the field of religion or theosophy and that they have no extra- 
ordinary mystic meaning, as some critics believe that they have. They 
constitute, nevertheless, a significant document. As we have seen in 
tracing their relation to Young's own career and to the works of other 
critics, they form a very comprehensive and advanced literary program 
of the time. 

Yet, even with their important contents and their forceful language, 
they did not attain to much significance in their own country. There 
the contents of the essay seems to have been too largely common property, 
as topics of discussion in literary circles as well as subjects of other 
writers. Young's lack of prestige as a literary critic must also have been 
unfavorable to the success of his last and greatest contribution to literary 
criticism. It will be seen later that he was appreciated far more in 

" Doran, Works of Young, Vol. I, p. 105. 
"Same, Vol. I, p. 416. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN ENGLAND 15 

Germany, where we find Kant, Hamann, and Herder among his ad- 
mirers. 

The Conjectures were immediately announced and copiously quoted 
in the Gentleman's Magazine and in Scot's Magazine. Goldsmith dis- 
cussed them also in his Critical Review, but without passing definite 
judgment on them. Dr. Warburton, finally, commended them, but 
corrected them to the effect that "the character of an original writer is 
not confined to subject, but extends to manner." 29 Horace Walpole, 
however, and William Shenstone are said to have greeted them with 
unrestricted applause. 

Very little influence of the treatise on later English writers can be 
discovered. Professor Brandl states that his search for instances re- 
vealed but few. 30 He found, however, that Horace Walpole in the 
second preface to his Castle of Otronto (1765) speaks quite unmistakably 
in the spirit and the words of the Conjectures. William Shenstone, 
furthermore, writes to his friend Dr. Percy: "You must by all means 
read Dr. Young's new 'Conjectures on Original Composition' and let it 
deter you, when you have completed Ovid, from engaging in any more 
translation." 31 But no further instances of this kind have so far been 
discovered. 

The Conjectures were similarly disregarded by the English literary 
critics. This has also been pointed out by Professor Brandl. Home 
seems to be entirely independent of Young in his Elements of Criticism 
(1762). Elizabeth Montagu, a personal friend of the author, disre- 
garded his Conjectures when she wrote her Essay on the Genius and 
Writings of Shakespeare (1765) and followed Dr. Johnson's introduction 
to his edition of Shakespeare's work's (1765). Hugh Blair follows Addi- 
son devotedly in his Lectures on Rhetoric (1783), but criticises Young as 
"too fond of antithesis — too much glitter — fatiguing." Young's 
biographer Croft speaks of the Conjectures as " the lively letter in prose 
. . . more like the production of untamed, unbridled youth than of 
jaded fourscore." 

From the time of their appearance until now the Conjectures have not 
received as much attention from the English reader as their form and 
contents deserve. They are unfortunately omitted from many editions 
of Young's works and are becoming very rare. They are contained 
only in the editions of 1767 (posthumous supplementary volume), of 

M Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. II, p. 56. 
"Shakespeare Jahrbuch, Vol. XXXIX, p. 13. 
11 Walter Thomas, Le Poete Edward Young, p. 476. 



16 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1770 (Edinburgh, 4 vols.), of 1774 (London, 5 vols.), of 1778 (Isaac Reed, 
6 vols.), of 1798 (London, 3 vols.), and of 1854 (John Doran, 2 vols.). 
These editions have become so scarce that it required a search of two 
years both here and abroad to procure one. 

The fate of the Conjectures in English literature is hardly deserved, 
and they are worth rescuing from such oblivion. They are not only 
interesting to read, but also form a valuable historical document. To 
the student of English literature they prove a revelation as to the period of 
their composition as well as to their author's literary career. While 
they embody to a large extent the literary program of their time, they are 
also their author's most complete expression as to literature and literary 
composition, constituting his literary testament to posterity. 



CHAPTER II 
YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 

Very soon after the Conjectures had come off the press in England 
they became known also in Germany. They appeared there in three 
translations, they were brought to the notice of the public through 
several reviews, favorable as well as adverse, and they were discussed 
among the writers and reckoned with by the literary critics. In this 
way they soon attained greater eminence in Germany than they ever 
enjoyed in their own country. 

The first German translation of the Conjectures appeared towards 
the end of February, in 1760, or about nine months after the publication 
of the first English edition. It was signed "V. T." and was made by 
Hans Ernst von Teubern. He made his translation from the second 
English edition and had it printed in Leipzig. In the introduction the 
translator speaks of Young in terms of the highest praise. In this same 
year, 1760, a second translation of the Conjectures made its appearance. 
This one was signed "G." But the signature proved a mystery, and 
who the author was, is still unknown. It was a translation of the first 
English edition, and was published in Hamburg, in the form of a con- 
tribution to the Freytniithige Brief e iiber die neuesten Werke aus den Wissen- 
schaften in und ausser Deutschland. In the year 1761 the Conjectures 
went forth anew from Leipzig in the form of an unaltered reprint of 
Teubern's translation. Finally there appeared, nearly two decades later, 
in the year 1787, a third and entirely new translation. It was pub- 
lished also in Leipzig, from which city Teubern's two editions had 
gone forth. The translator signed it only "C", and as such he still 
remains unknown. He used the first English edition and produced a 
rather free rendering. In the introduction he states that he received 
some help with his task, but does not say from whom. In the preface 
he adds that he considers his translation of Young's essay the first one 
in Germany, having failed to find mention of any other, and that he hopes, 
if there is one and it had been forgotten, his work would reawaken 
Young's spirit among the Germans. 

These various translations indicate how favorably Young's essay was 
received in Germany. The first ones particularly show that it met with 
immediate and high esteem. That Teubern had his translation before 
the public within but a few months after the essay was written, and his 
second edition within a year of the first, and that the Freymiithige Brief e 



18 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

offered the essay to their readers in a special translation, is strong evidence 
of ardent and spreading interest. The latest translation, though, is of 
more restricted significance. In the first place, it came when the wave 
of such theorizing was almost spent. It came, moreover, from a trans- 
lator who was clearly not a leading critic. He states erroneously that 
the Conjectures had been published over thirty years before. Although 
the greatest German writers of the century had already done some of 
their most promising work, and the country was intoxicated with enthusi- 
asm over its literary ability and success, he nevertheless says in the pre- 
face to his translation that no previous decade had been so void of 
original writers as his, and that German letters were suffering from the 
bane of much imitation, slavery to literary rules, and the mercenary 
interests of the writers. The preface bears witness, however, to un- 
bounded enthusiasm on the part of its author for Young as an original 
genius and for his Conjectures as a guide to literary success. 

We come next to the several literary reviews of the Conjectures. 
The earliest one appeared in the Neue Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen 
of Leipzig on February 25, 1760. It consisted of a synopsis, favorable 
comment, and the announcement that a German translation (meaning 
Teubern's) was soon to appear. Shortly after this translation was pub- 
lished it was reviewed by Gottsched in his periodical Das Neuste aus der 
Anmuthigen Gelehrsamkeit. As was to be expected of such a classicist, 
he accuses Young of meddling with matters of which he was not compe- 
tent to speak, and deplores that Teubern did not translate something 
more worthy of his talents. He adds, however, that Young's style in 
particular and also some of his ideas were good, and that the translation 
was a creditable piece of work. In the same year the Bibliothek der 
schbnen Wissenschaften reviews the treatise favorably and gives a long 
synopsis of it. Then it mentions the two German translations, and closes 
with the remark that the treatise was already too well known in Germany 
to require further comment. On June 25, 1761, Nicolai reviewed the Con- 
jectures in the Liter aturbriefe with much praise, and censured severely 
Gottsched 's criticism of them. In the same year the Bremisches Maga- 
zin published a translation of the article on the Conjectures which had 
appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine two years before. In 1762 the 
Gbttingische Anzeiger von gelehrten Sachen reviewed the second edition 
of Teubern's translation, praising both the original and the translation. 
An article appearing in the Beitrdge zur Liter atur und zum Vergniigen in 
the year 1766, finally, discusses the literary excellence of Greece and 



YOUNG'S " CONJECTURES " IN GERMANY 19 

England and also mentions the Conjectures favorably and quotes from 
them. 

Schmid's Theorie der Poesie, published in 1767, further recommends the 
Conjectures highly as a literary guide to immortal originality. Rambach, 
on the other hand, undertook a refutation of them in a Schulprogramm 
in 1765. He was answered by Herder with a strong defence of Young 
in the form of a review in the Konigsbergische gelehrte und politische 
Zeitung. The Gelehrter Mercurius likewise attacks the Conjectures for dis- 
crediting the ancients. Meusel's article De veterum poetarum inter- 
prets! one of 1767, finally, carries this attack still farther. Cramer's 
Nordischer Aufseher, again, printed an eleven-page synopsis of the Con- 
jectures in 1770 and makes favorable comments on them. Thereafter 
mention was made of the Conjectures in various bibliographies and 
critical treatises. A further review of them appeared as late as 1791 
in the supplement to the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, criticising the 
translation of 1787, but praising Teubern's translation and the English 
original. And even as late as 1794 the Englische Blatter, published by 
Schubart, contained an article which cites with approval a passage from 
the Conjectures. 

These data show that the essay received prompt and wide attention. 
The reason for this favorable reception is a matter for further inquiry. 
Was it that the essay brought new and stirring ideas to Germany? 
If so, it must have been one of the principal agents which evoked the dis- 
cussion and subsequent cult of literary genius and originality which 
prevailed for several decades, during the so-called Storm and Stress 
period in German literature. Or did the essay achieve its popularity 
in Germany because it treated so forcefully certain subject-matter that 
was already familiar from other sources, but was just becoming a burn- 
ing question of the day? The answer to these questions will be found by 
a careful study of the role which the Conjectures played in contemporary 
German literature. 

The Germans not only translated, praised, and criticised Young's 
"lively letter" on literature and literary composition, as we have just 
observed; they also studied, applied, and quoted it, as we shall now see. 
We find, in fact, that almost everything it contains of vital literary criti- 
cism occurs in some form or manner in the literature of Germany during 
the next two decades. Let us ascertain as far as possible to what extent 
this was due to the influence of Young's treatise. 



^ 



20 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Various critics have concluded that the treatise exerted a profound 
and decisive influence on German literature. Stein says that it did 
much towards establishing in Germany the conception of the poet as a 
creator, 1 the very idea which constitutes the soul of the Storm and Stress 
movement. Walter Thomas, in his thorough treatise on the life and 
works of Young, likewise asserts that the Conjectures were of great 
consequence in Germany, and particularly for the literary revolution 
which followed upon them. 2 More recently still Professor Kind, in his 
excellent monograph on Young, has argued that they established their 
doctrine of individuality and original genius in Germany as the watchword 
of a new literary school. 3 Lastly we are told by Dr. Rudolph Unger that 
the Conjectures gave Germany a conception of genius that became a 
revolutionizing factor in her literature. 4 

While at the first glance the reasoning of these critics seems altogether 
plausible, the question remains whether their conclusions are not based 
too exclusively on the fact that the ideas in question later became so 
general and effective in Germany, particularly during the "Genie- 
periode." It will be in place, therefore, to inquire into the definite 
evidence for the assumption that Young's critique became so influential 
in Germany. To be sure there are instances which show unmistakable 
traces of the effect of the critique upon German literature. Thus 
Hamann admired and quoted not only Young's Night Thoughts but also 
his Conjectures. In one passage he mentions the latter and again 
alludes to them indirectly when treating of literary imitation, of genuine 
and deep feeling as a requisite of the poet, and of Young's advice to the 
author: "Know thyself!" 5 In another place he mentions them again 
and uses two expressions from them, "the noble few," and "the latest 
edition of the human soul." 6 Finally, in a third passage he says: 
" In his codicil to Richardson Young sets the task to imitate the ancients 
in such a manner that we get, the farther the better, away from similarity 
to them." 7 These three passages are as far as I can see the only ones 
in which we can be certain that he was making use of the Conjectures. 
To believe, however, that the latter permeated his thinking to the extent 
of excluding other similar influences as well as his own independent 

1 Die Enstehung der neueren Asthetik, pp. 136 ff. 

2 Le Poete Edward Young, pp. 513 ff. 

3 Edward Young in Germany, Chapter II. 

4 Hamann und die Aufklarung, pp. 275 ff. 

5 Hamann, Vol. II, p. 198. 
• Same, Vol. II, pp. 265 f. 
7 Same, Vol. II, p. 173. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 21 

thinking on these topics, and that they were the cause of all resemblance 
to them in his later writings, would seem too credulous. He quotes 
not only Young's treatise, but also several similar writings, and even 
before his acquaintance with the former he wrote along lines of literary 
criticism in about the same manner as he did afterwards. 

The principal worshipper at the shrine of the Conjectures was per- 
haps Herder. He read them early in life and copied passages from them 
into his notebook. 8 In the year 1766 he wrote the review of Rambach's 
Schulprogramm, which already has been mentioned. This review comprised 
about two pages in book form, in which Herder quotes, defends, and 
praises the Conjectures, speaking of "the great Young" and of "a genius 
like Young," although he bickers somewhat about their attitude towards 
the ancients. 9 In the following year he adds: " Why do we feel a certain 
ardor in Young's treatise on originals which we do not notice in merely 
thorough disquisitions? Because Young's spirit prevails in it, speaks 
to us, as it were, from heart to heart, from genius to genius, and trans- 
mits itself like an electric spark." 10 A little later in the same year he 
refers to the Conjectures in a discussion of imitation versus emulation. 
He reverts also to refutations of them, such as that by Rambach, and 
repeats once more his dissatisfaction with Young's assertion that the 
reading of the ancients is mostly harmful. 11 Even after the "Genie- 
periode" he quotes Young's maxim that one often resembles the ancients 
most when seeming to depart farthest from them. 12 

This is the extent and limit of our certain evidence of Herder's tribute 
and indebtedness to the Conjectures. This evidence proves indeed that 
he reckoned seriously with them, but it does not prove that his work as 
author and critic was greatly influenced by them. While it is true that 
he culled from them for his notebook and praised, defended, and quoted 
them, it is equally certain that other critiques also occupied and influ- 
enced him. He mentions and quotes many. It was, for instance, only 
two weeks before writing the defence against Rambach that he speaks 
in a similar review of Meyer's Briefe zur Bildung des Geschmacks of finding 
here and there in the introduction to it unnamed extracts from Joseph 
Warton's Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. 13 It follows that 

8 Haym, Herder nach seinem Leben nnd Werken, Vol. I, p. 149. 

9 Herder, Vol. I, pp. 121-123. 

10 Same, Vol. I, p. 256. 

11 Same, Vol. I, p. 383. 

12 Same, Vol. XII, p. 235. 
u Herder, Vol. I, p. 115. 



22 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Herder was very familiar with this essay also, which resembled Young's 
as to contents and surpassed it in being more consistent, thorough, and 
convincing. 

The other cases where influence of the Conjectures on German litera- 
ture can be verified are rather few and less important. The Schles- 
wigsche Literaturbriefe refer to their warning against servile imitation. 14 
Schlapp tells of similarities and references to them in Lindner's Lehrbuch 
der schbnen Wissenschaften (1767). 15 He asserts also that Winkelmann 
and Sulzer are "obviously dependent on Young's Conjectures." This 
assertion is, however, a mere theory. We have reached the limit of our 
certain evidence in the matter. 

In many cases more or less influence of the Conjectures seems obvious 
until one considers that there were many other possible sources of the 
same sort of influence. To avoid deceiving ourselves in such cases we 
must bear in mind that a number of critiques quite similar to Young's 
were read simultaneously in Germany and that as much could be said 
for the influence of one or the other of these treatise on German literature 
as has been said about Young's critique. Many of these treatises were 
also reviewed in periodicals, translated, quoted, and applied, but we have 
neither time nor room at present to go further into their history in 
Germany. We leave, moreover, for a later chapter the passages which 
resemble in some way the Conjectures, but whose origin cannot be traced 
either to them or to this or that other source. We shall review next 
some cases where the ideas expressed in the Conjectures appeared pre- 
viously in Germany, as well as others where such ideas were afterwards 
taken from other sources, though they could have been taken from the 
Conjectures. 

We begin with a consideration of Young's most definite statements 
about ancient versus modern authors. He says, " Let it not be suspected 
that I would weakly insinuate anything in favor of the moderns, as 
compared with ancient authors; no, I am lamenting their great inferiority. 
But I think it is no necessary inferiority; 16 . . . The modern powers 
are equal to those before them; modern performance in general is deplor- 
ably short. . . . Reasons there are why talents may not appear, none 
why they may not exist, as much in one period as in another." 17 Such 
passages, and several more of this kind could be added, identify Young's 

14 Page 86. 

15 Schlapp, Kanls Lehre vom Genie, p. 61. 
18 Conjectures, in this monograph, p. 47. 
17 Same, p. 55. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 23 

essay, however, as one of the later links of a long chain of disquisitions 
about the relation and relative greatness of the ancient and modern 
authors. But this querelle des anciens et modernes, which was begun 
in France by Perrault and was inaugurated in England by Sir William 
Temple, spread to Germany partly from France and partly from England. 
It was fought violently in Germany as early as the year 1740, which 
marks the beginning of the strife with Gottsched as the advocate of 
French pseudo-classic literature and literary principles on one side, and 
Bodmer, Breitinger, and Lessing on the other side as the champions of 
the more modern authors as exemplified especially in Milton and Shakes- 
peare. So this dispute, which continued in Germany during the twenty 
years preceding the Conjectures and for twenty more after their ap- 
pearance, cannot have been influenced much by them. In the year 
1753, for example, Lessing writes, "One praises the later, the other the 
ancient authors, but nature remains ever the same, always rich in gifts, 
and there is never a lack of minds which leave the common confines of 
knowledge, filled with creative thoughts. Was wisdom the glory only 
of bygone times? Does the human mind no more possess the greatness 
of the ancients?" 18 And similar circumstances prevailed as to Young's 
statement that the world admires in the ancients, "not the fewness of 
their faults, but the number and brightness of their beauties," and that 
"a giant loses nothing of his size though he should chance to trip in his 
race." The former idea was frequent in earlier French aesthetics, as 
Stein says, 19 and Lessing expresses the latter in very similar terms in 
the year 1750, 20 and again in 1752. 21 

As to the relative value of translations and original works Young and 
Lessing have also about the same to say. As a champion of the modern 
authors and original works, Young makes an attack on Pope, who had 
asserted nothing better remains for the moderns to do than to follow 
the ancients, and says in regard to his translation of Homer that an 
original attempt would have been more to his credit and adds, "But 
supposing Pope's Iliad to have been perfect in its kind : yet it is a trans- 
lation still, which differs as much from the original as the moon from the 
sun." 22 But Lessing asked as early as 1753 whether any one with the 
least national ambition would condescend to be a translator, if he could 
become an original writer. 23 

18 Vol. I, p. 243. 

19 Entstehung der neueren Asthetik, p. 19. 

20 Vol. VIII, p. 262. 

21 Vol. V, p. 8. 

22 Conjectures, p. 59. 

23 Vol. V, p. 169. 



24 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

What the Conjectures say about imitation was already being widely 
discussed in Germany when they were published. "Imitations are 
of two kinds," they say, "one of nature, and one of authors; the first 
we call originals, and confine the term imitation to the second." 24 This 
idea had been expressed particularly by Batteux in 1746, 25 and by 
Gellertin 1751." 26 

The following lines in the Conjectures also did not bring a new 
conception to Germany: "Born originals, how does it come to pass that 
we die copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to 
years of indiscretion (so let me speak) snatches the pen and blots out 
nature's mark of separation." 27 That every man is by nature an original, 
differing from every other individual, and that he ought to follow this law 
of nature and ought to make his literary productions originals, and not 
imitations, had been taught long before by Vida in his "Art of Poetry," 28 
a treatise which was well known to the German literary critics. And the 
expressions to imitate, ape, and mimic nature are common in Blackwell's 
Life and Writings of Homer, and in the earlier works of Winkelmann. 
The idea and expression of mimicking nature, says Stein, 29 go back to 
Aristotle. 

Young adds as to imitation that "copies surpass not their originals, 
as streams rise not higher than their spring, and even rarely so high." 30 
Several years before, however, Gellert said: "Whoever does not rely on 
himself for anything, but on his original for everything, whoever will do 
nothing in imitating but meagerly to follow his example, he will not 
only equal it, but will also always remain beneath it. And what would 
have been achieved by imitating if none had ever attained to more than 
the original which he followed?" 31 And Gellert quotes this from Quin- 
tillian. So we have here two earlier and widely known sources from 
which later repetitions of the ideas in question may have originated. 

The "Conjectures" also speak of the imitator as a transplanter. 32 
This idea became frequent and forceful in Germany. But Lessing voices 

24 Conjectures, p. 45. 

25 Les beaux arts reduits a un meme principe, p. 9. 
28 Vol. I, p. 306. 

27 Conjectures, p. 54. 

28 English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 645. 

29 Entstehung der neueren Asthetik, p. 125. 

30 Conjectures, p. 53. 

31 Vol. T, p. 65. 
M p. 45. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 25 

it as early as 1753. 33 Then they differentiate between imitating the 
writings of an author, on the one hand, and his method of writing on the 
other. This had already been done a few years before by Winkelmann. 34 
And they advocate as the right method the practice of Homer, who, 
they say, 35 wrote only according to nature. This doctrine had been 
taught long ago, however, by Vida in his "Art of Poetry." 36 From him 
Opitz took it over into his Buck von der deutschen Poeterei, and from 
there Bodmer quotes it and develops it. 37 Somewhat later, but still 
previously to the Conjectures, Lessing takes it up and propounds it 
most fully and strikingly. But even Gottsched had asserted in his 
Kritische Dichtung of 1740 that an imitation of nature must form the 
basis of poetry, and Breitinger said in the same year in his Kritische 
Abhandlung: "Poetry is a skillful imitation of nature. . . . Study 
nature and follow its suggestions!" 38 Still further sources for the doc- 
trine in question are given by Lessing, who says: 39 "Not only Batteux, 
but also Horace and Aristotle say: 'Imitate nature.' ' And even eight 
years after the publication of the Conjectures this same author quotes 
Diderot, saying: "What do I care for rules, if I am only being pleased? — 
And is there any rule except that to imitate nature?" 40 

One of Young's most striking arguments is that for new thought and 
imaginative invention versus translation, imitation, and plagiarism. He 
says of the imitator that he "thinks in wretched unanimity with the 
throng: incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by 
their abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; 
opens not the least vista through the gloom of ordinary writers into the 
bright walks of rare imagination and singular design; while the true 
genius is crossing all public roads into fresh, untrodden grounds." 41 
But this argument also was common in Germany when Young's essay 
arrived. For evidence of this the earlier works of Lessing may be con- 
sulted. 42 And many other German and still more foreign sources were 
available. 

83 Vol. V, p. 276. 

84 Vol. I, pp. 206 f. 
36 p. 48. 

38 English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 643. 

87 Deutsche Liter aturdenkmale, Vol. XII, p. 65. 

38 p. 198. 

39 Vol. V, p. 387. 

40 Vol. X, p. 142. 

41 Conjectures, p. 57. 

« Vol. IV, pp. 399, 407; Vol. V, pp. 7, 198; Vol. VI, p. 60; Vol. VII, pp. 27, 110. 



26 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

After differentiating thus between the imitator and the "true genius" 
Young speaks of the "difference between those two luminaries in lit- 
erature, the well-accomplished scholar and the divinely-inspired enthu- 
siast. " 43 By "the well-accomplished scholar" he means the author who 
gets his ideas by reading and writes mechanically according to literary 
rules, and he inveighs severely against such book-learning and artificial 
writing. He says very tersely: "Rules, like crutches, are a needful aid 
to the lame, though an impediment to the strong." 44 This, however, 
was again nothing new to the Germans. Shortly before the appearance 
of the Conjectures Hamann had applied the very term "crutches" 
to mechanical literary rules and methods, 45 while Young's leading German 
forerunner in the campaign against servile literary rules proved to be 
Lessing. 46 Even immediately before the days of the Conjectures, to 
give a further instance, he quotes from Dryden concerning "servile 
observation of the dramatic unities. " 47 And Opitz argues in his Buck 
von der deutschen Poeterey ,,i8 that literary rules and laws alone do not 
make the poet. Referring likewise to authorship based on book-learning 
and literary rules, Young adds: "Learning is fond and proud of what 
has cost it much pains; it is a great lover of rules, and boaster of famed 
examples, and sets rigid bounds to that liberty to which genius often 
owes its supreme glory. " 49 This old contention, however, that literary 
rules are more detrimental than helpful to the literary genius, was 
inaugurated in Germany decades before the days of the Conjectures. 
It was started there primarily by Bodmer and Breitinger in their fight 
against the pseudo-classicism of Gottsched. Even previously to that it 
played an important part in the quarrel over the ancients versus the 
moderns, in which it centered largely around the distinction made between 
the genuine poet (ttoi^ttis) as a maker, or creator, and the versifica- 
teur, a distinction which was formulated in the Renaissance, by such 
men as Petrarch, Ronsard, and Sir William Sidney, and which played 
also an important part in the 18th century, with such men as Addison, 
Shaftesbury, Warton, Diderot, and in Germany particularly with Lessing. 
The creative power of the imagination was recognized as the distin- 

*' Conjectures, p. 57. 

44 p. 50. 

"Vol. I, p. 118. 

" Vol. I, p. 253; Vol VI, p. 405; and Vol. VIII, p. 143. 

« Vol VI, p. 285. 

" p. 8. 

49 Conjectures, p. 49. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 27 

guishing characteristic of the poet. 50 So Lessing quotes directly from 
Diderot in 1759 as to the "difference between a versificateur and a true 
poet, " 51 and also before that he distinguishes sharply between the versi- 
ficateur and the genuine poet. 52 Lessing further remarks on the subject 
of the versificateur as a poet who works only with second-hand thoughts 
and rimes them according to mechanical rules. He adds that a genius will 
rarely follow rules intentionally, and that he must not be checked by 
them. 53 He even declares positively that his attitude towards rules is 
such that he would rather have made the most shapeless human being 
than the most regular statue, 54 and states that the English consider close 
observance of literary rules slavery, 55 and adds that only amateurs are 
subject to rules of poetry. 56 We have also a still earlier discussion by this 
critic as to the origin, nature, and danger of rules. 57 Gellert, his teacher, 
speaks in similar manner against rules. 58 

Young continues this line of thought by adding: "For unprescribed 
beauties and unexampled excellence, which are characteristics of genius, 
lie without the pale of learning's authorities and laws. " 59 But also for 
this passage there were in Germany not only many foreign but also many 
native forerunners. The most explicit forerunner among the Germans 
was again Lessing. As early as 1749 he speaks of "beautiful mistakes in 
the strides of a giant who will not condescend to follow cautiously in the 
footsteps of children. " 60 Another such forerunner is Gellert. He quotes 
and applies Pope's statement in the Essay on Criticism that genius may 
gloriously offend and thus rise to faults which no true critic may attack, 
and that, in his brave disorder, he may "snatch a grace beyond the reach 
of art." 61 Thus he anticipates the above mentioned passage in the Con- 
jectures completely, and does so by eight years; moreover both he and 
Lessing, the two leaders in the campaign against literary servility, re- 
peated these views frequently in later years. 

60 Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 168. 

61 Lessing, Vol. VIII, p. 230. 

62 Same, Vol. VIII, p. 140. 

63 Vol. VII, p. 416. 
" Vol. VII, p. 68. 
45 Vol. V, p. 405. 
"Vol. V, p. 110. 
" Vol. IV, p. 413. 

68 Vol. I, p. 105. 

69 Conjectures, p. 50. 
" Vol. I, p. 253. 

" Vol. I, p. 87. 



28 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

A further thrust at hampering literary principles is Young's criticism 
of rime as "childish shackles and tinkling sounds," and his exaltation of 
blank verse. 62 But in 1751 and again in 1753 Lessing had spoken of 
others calling rime "childish tinkling," and by the time the Conjec- 
tures appeared he had already repeatedly criticised and discredited 
rime. 63 Blank verse was established in German literature lastingly and 
eminently by Klopstock long before the coming of Young's essay. 

Set over against such attacks on translation, imitation, and servile 
dependence on precedents, the Conjectures contain various exalta- 
tions of literary "originals" and of the "true genius." Originals, they 
say, are great benefactors, extending the republic of letters and adding 
new provinces. 64 Now Lessing had already spoken of original writers as 
"extenders" (Erweiterer) several years earlier. 65 The term " original, " 
also, applied both to writers and to writings, was not "introduced or 
established in Germany by the Conjectures. It was overwhelmingly 
frequent in the multitude of French and English essays which were so 
widely read in Germany before and during the " Genieperiode. " We 
also find leading German critics use the term just as Young does, and 
before his essay appeared. In 1754, for instance, Lessing uses the term 
" Originalstiicke " for original literary productions, 65 and Winkelmann 
speaks at about this time of the independent genius as "ein Original." 66 

In further distinction between the laborious author and the true 
genius, the latter is spoken of as one who may boast of his no-learning, 
calling himself the eagle, for his flight above it, as Pindar did, 67 and one 
who, as Bacon, sees "with a more than eagle's eye. " 68 In the year before 
that of the Conjectures, however, Lessing compares the flight of the poet 
to that of the eagle, 69 and Hamann speaks of the eyes having the keen- 
ness of the eagle. 70 As to the no-learning of the genius, the following 
sentence from the Conjectures may also be considered here: "Some are 
pupils of nature only, nor go farther to school." 71 But several years 
previously Lessing had said: "Whatever charms a peasant, cannot be 

M Conjectures, p. 58. 

63 Vol. IV, p. 345; and Vol. VII, p. 32. 

M Conjectures, p. 45. 

M Vol. V, p. 418. 

« Vol. I, pp. 22 f . and 224. 

67 Conjectures, p. 50. 

88 Same, p. 61. 

"Vol. VII, p. 17. 

70 Vol. I, p. 80. 

71 p. 51. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 29 

degraded by a rule, for in him the impulse of nature is still genuine"; 72 
and of a certain writer he remarks that "an ardent and still modest 
imagination, the language of nature, gives him the right to a superior 
rank among our poets." 73 

As to the essential nature of genius Young says: In the fairyland of 
fancy genius has a creative power. 74 But this idea was not new to 
the Germans. Before Young, Winkelmann had spoken of the "hand 
of a creative master," 75 and still earlier Lessing had spoken of a literary 
product "through which our country can defend the honor of possessing 
creative minds. " 76 Batteux speaks very frequently of the creative power 
of the imagination, or fancy, as the essential characteristic of genius, and 
the essay 77 in which he does so, was read by all leading German critics 
and authors before and after the coming of the Conjectures. And Vida 
speaks in his still older and also commonly known Art of Poetry 19, of 
a "new creation" as a fit production of the poet since his name was 
derived from iroLtiv, meaning to make, or create. Young adds in con- 
tinuing on the matter of the creative power of the poetical imagination: 
"Moreover, so boundless are the bold excursions of the human mind 
that in the vast void beyond real existence it can call forth shadowy 
beings and unknown worlds as numerous, as bright, and perhaps as last- 
ing, as the stars." 79 But with the philosophy of Leibnitz about "possi- 
ble worlds" as their basis, Bodmer, Breitinger, and Baumgarten had 
already assigned to the poet as his special realm the "moglichen Welten" 
and the "Land der Moglichkeiten, " which is pointed out very well by 
Schlapp 80 and by Franz Servaes. 81 And still others who had spread this 
doctrine in Germany prior to the Conjectures are Opitz, Batteux, and 
Lessing. The first of these says that all poetry consists in aping nature, 
and that it describes things, not so much as they are, but rather as they 
could or ought to be. 82 Batteux again says, "if this world is not suffi- 
cient to the poet, he creates new worlds, which he embellishes with 

» Vol. I, p. 250. 

73 Vol. V, p. 159. 

74 Conjectures, p. 52. 

76 Vol. I, p. 230. 
78 Vol. IV, p. 302. 

77 Les beaux arts reduits d un mime principe. 

78 English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 643. 

79 Conjectures, p. 61. 

80 Kanls Lehre vom Genie, p. 168. 

81 Die Poetik Gotlscheds und der Schweizcr, pp. 93 ff. 

82 Buck von der deutschen Poeterei, p. 13. 



30 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

enchanted dwellings and populates with a million divers inhabitants. " 83 
In a similar way, also, Lessing speaks of the "creative mind" of the poet 
creating and animating "Moglichkeiten," 84 meaning possible beings and 
circumstances. Thus we see that the theory in question was long and 
widely known in Germany before the time of the Conjectures. 

Speaking also of the creative and life-giving power of the poetic 
genius, Young says of Shakespeare and Otway that they would have out- 
done Prometheus and given not only life, but immortality. 85 This 
Prometheus symbol, also, comparing the poet to Prometheus stealing 
divine poetic fire from heaven, or from the muses, or forming man out 
of clay and making him alive, does not owe its prevalence in Germany to 
the Conjectures. Vida uses it very strikingly in his Art of Poetry. 86 Win- 
kelmann uses it most completely and very frequently prior to Young. 87 
And Herder, who seems to use it the greatest number of times, got 
it from Shaftesbury, not from Young, as Walzel proves in his treatise 
"Das Prometheussymbol von Shaftesbury bis Goethe." 

It is also to be noted that Young's foregoing high praise of Shakes- 
peare is not the only instance of the kind in the treatise. In fact, he 
characterizes him repeatedly and most strikingly as a genius of the first 
rank among all writers since the days of the ancients. His glorification 
of him, being an effective summary of the arguments current during the 
Shakespearean revival in England, is so impressive that the question 
has been raised whether it inaugurated the great German Shakespear- 
ean movement in which would indeed have been an epoch-making 
influence of the Conjectures in Germany. But for two decades before 
their appearance Shakespeare had formed a central issue in German lit- 
erary criticism. Such was the case in the strife between Gottsched and 
his opponents, and the latter, defeating Gottsched and his French pseudo- 
classicism, made a lasting place in Germany for Shakespeare and set 
him up firmly as the unparralleled example of the natural, original genius. 
The result was the extensive imitation and emulation of Shakespeare, 
making itself felt particularly during the " Genieperiode. " Just how 
this German Shakespearean movement began and developed, is worked 
out very accurately by Koberstein in his essay " Shakespeare s all- 
mahliches Bekanntwerden in Deutschland. " The fact is that the Con- 

83 Les beaux arts, p. 3. 

84 Vol. I, p. 247. 

86 Conjectures, p. 67 f. 

» English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 638. 

87 Vol. I, pp. 56, 79, and 165 f. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 31 

jectures neither began nor greatly increased this movement, but that 
they were only one source of influence among many in this respect. 

There is, however, a certain detail in Young's praise of Shakespeare 
which demands special consideration. Shakespeare is called " that much 
more than common man," 88 which is an equivalent to the term super- 
man and to the German term " Ubermensch. " But this phrase in the 
Conjectures did not give rise to the super-man idea, as is plainly shown 
by Grimm's Worterbuch in its discussion of the word "Genie." A 
few instances of evidence may also be added here to show that equi- 
valents to Young's phrase "more than common man" were prevalent in 
Germany prior to the Conjectures. Vida, for example, speaks of an 
inspired poet singing in "more than human" sounds; 89 Lessing speaks of 
nature making a poet "something more than man," 90 and Winkelmann 
uses the expression "the more than human circumstances." 91 So we 
have here three critics, all commonly known in Germany, who express 
the idea of " more than common man" before the Conjectures brought it in. 

On the subject of genius Young further says, "A genius differs from 
a good understanding as a magician from a good architect. " 92 But again 
several years earlier Lessing spoke of the "magic art of poetry," 93 and 
of the " enchantment " which the genius of a writer lends. 94 Winkelmann 
also antedates Young by speaking of poetic magic. 95 And Batteux, a 
still earlier critic, discusses how a poet with a powerful imagination will 
create, populate, and also animate new worlds, and calls this "a sort of 
magic. " % 

Another poetic principle which played an important rdle in Germany 
and which was also said to owe its origin to Young's essay is the theory 
about the "language of the passions," or about the "feeling heart." 
The Conjectures speak about "an inestimable prize setting our passions 
on fire, thus strengthening every power that enables composition to 
shine"; 97 and they say, "what comes from the writer's heart reaches 
ours," and continue in particular praise of Addison's "warm and feeling 

88 Conjectures, p. 64. 

89 English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 643. 

90 Vol. I, p. 241. 
"Vol. I, p. 21. 

92 Conjectures, p. 49. 

93 Vol. VII, p. 67. 

94 Vol. VI, p. 14. 
99 Vol. I, p. 91. 

M Les beaux arts, p. 3. 
97 Conjectures, p. 62. 



32 young's "conjectures on original composition " 

heart. " 98 Thus Young argues in favor of the emotional powers versus 
the purely rational, and asserts repeatedly that the heart is of greater 
importance in poetic composition than the head. His statements in 
this matter have been taken for the cause of the emphasis laid by several 
German writers on the "language of the heart" and the "language of 
the passions," but such a reaction against rationalism in the field of 
literature was begun in Germany a long time prior to the Conjectures 
Even in Vida's Art of Poetry the Germans read about the poet being 
"triumphant in his art when he sports with the passions and commands 
the heart, "" and Batteux gave them the term "language of the heart. " 10 ° 
But the leaders of the movement in question were Bodmer, Breitinger, 
Gellert, and Lessing, and they carried it on in opposition to Gottsched 
and French pseudo-classicism, by vindicating Milton and Shakespeare 
to their countrymen, and by advocating English literary principles. 
But even before this movement was definitely inaugurated the earliest of 
these critics had expressed the theory that feeling and passion are im- 
portant literary characteristics and factors, for the joint book by Bodmer 
and Breitinger on the imagination, which appeared in 1727, says: " Poetic 
enthusiasm is nothing other than the exceedingly strong passion for 
the subject matter with which the whole soul of an author is possessed 
and filled, " and speaks of the imagination being inflamed by a strong 
passion. 101 These ideas were also frequently repeated by these two 
critics in their later and still more influential treatises, which appeared in 
and around 1740. Lessing wrote a detailed argument on this topic in 
1749 in which he rates critical reason lower as a factor in composition 
than feeling, 102 and added later that a poet must himself have the feeling 
which he wants to produce in others. 103 Gellert also uses the term "lan- 
guage of the heart" repeatedly prior to Young's essay, 104 and praises an 
author for "letting his heart speak." 105 g§ 

Used much like the term "language of the heart" we find the term 
"language of nature," and as the former was contrasted with the term 
"voice of reason," so the latter was contrasted with the term "voice of 
rules." Lessing, for instance, identifies "feeling" and "language of 

68 Conjectures, pp. 65 f. 

99 English Poets, Vol. XIX, p. 640. 

100 Les beaux arts, p. 276. 

101 Servaes, Die Poctik Gottscheds und der Schivcizer, pp. 62 f. 
i" 2 Vol. I, p. 248. 

*« Vol. V, p. 283. 

> M Vol. I, p. 51, and Vol. II, p. 15. 

106 Vol. I, p. 41. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 33 

nature" strikingly and rates the "voice of nature" above the "voice of 
rules"; 106 he also praises certain lines of poetry as "children of nature"; 107 
and to add another instance, he says, the best rule is to write without 
rules and have everywhere the "language of nature and of the heart. " 108 
The Conjectures indeed repeatedly urge the poet to follow nature, but 
they were preceded in this by the writers just quoted. 

A further observation made by Young concerning authorship is that 
"virtue assists genius," and that "the writer will be more able when 
better is the man." 109 Long before this, however, Lessing says: "O 
muse, smile on him, that he may combine poetic fire and wisdom with 
nobility, or the poet and the good man," 110 and elsewhere he says: "A 
man who thinks lowly, writes always weakly and poorly. . . . O 
virtue, teach me first how to live and then how to write. . . . Not 
knowledge, not wit, but the heart constitutes our worth." 111 

But in discussing the nature of true genius Young speaks not alone of 
nobility but even of divinity; he says, ''Genius is from heaven, learning 
from man," 112 and this is his way of saying that genius must be born, not 
made by learning. To a similar effect he quotes Seneca's line, "Sacer 
nobis inest deus" and adds: "With regard to the moral world, conscience, 
with regard to the intellectual, genius, is that God within. Genius can 
set us right in composition without the rules of the learned, as conscience 
sets us right in life without the laws of the land." 113 Now although 
Young did not mean much by saying genius is a god within, as is shown 
by his restriction that genius cannot give us divine truth revealed, and 
that it is not to set aside divine truth revealed, and that the most un- 
bounded and exalted genius can give us only what by his own or other's 
eyes has been seen, 114 one could nevertheless expect that this restriction 
was not always taken into account and that the striking assertion about 
genius being "a god within" meant more to the reader than the author 
meant by it. If so, the reader might have understood the author to be 
speaking figuratively of poetic inspiration by the muses, or of a Daimon- 
ion in the terms of Socrates, or of inspiration in the terms of Plato ; 

10 « Vol. VI, pp. 42 and 190. 

107 Vol. V, p. 180. 

108 Vol. II, p. 228. 

109 Conjectures, p. 62. 

110 Vol. I, p. 144. 

111 Vol. VII, p. 55. 

112 Conjectures, p. 52. 

113 Same, pp. 50 f. 

114 Same, p. 53. 



34 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

or he may have understood the author to be speaking of poetic and 
prophetic inspiration in the terms of the Old Testament, or he may have 
understood him to be speaking of the voice of nature, or the divine 
immanence of nature as the "god within." In seeking to determine 
whether Young's essay was the main possible source of these ideas, we 
find such instances as the following where these ideas occurred in Ger- 
many prior to Young's essay. Hamann compares and identifies the 
inspiration of Socrates by his Daimonion and that of Peter by the Holy 
Ghost, 115 and speaks also of the "still, small voice" heard in the Word of 
God and in our hearts. 116 Lessing says, the poet gets orders from his 
"Schutzgeist, " 117 and this term is the special German equivalent for the 
Daimonion of Socrates. He exclaims also: "Alas, poor poesy! Instead 
of enthusiasm and gods within, rules suffice now." 118 Bodmer speaks 
of the poet being "des Gottes voll" (inspired by the deity) which taught 
David. 119 Finally it is to be noted that Opitz quotes from Ovid: "Est deus 
in nobis, agitante calescimus illo," and translates this line about as fol- 
lows: "There is a spirit within us, and what is written, thought, or said 
by us is incited by him." He adds: "Where this natural impulse is 
present, which Plato calls a divine furor, in distinction from madness and 
dullness, neither invention nor words need to be sought. " 12 ° After these 
forerunners, and with its definite restriction, Young's statement that 
genius is a god within cannot have been very effective in Germany. 

Such are some of the essential circumstances as to the relation of 
Young's Conjectures to Germany. Further search would reveal still 
more of this kind. Those which have been so far presented in this 
chapter will suffice, however, to show that all the important ideas of 
Young were present and current in Germany before they arrived there 
anew in the form of the Conjectures. The Germans had learned most 
of them from such foreign sources as are quoted in Section II of the 
Appendix with regard to their parallels to the Conjectures and as the 
probable sources of them. 

We shall next consider those German parallels which came chrono- 
logically in the wake of the Conjectures. There are hundreds of them, 
but less than ten can be traced with certainty to the Conjectures as 

116 Vol. T, pp. 138 f. 
lia Vol. I, p. 89. 

117 Vol. VII, p. 7. 

118 Vol. I, p. 252. 

119 Deutsche Literaturdenkmale, Vol. XII, p. 69. 

120 Buck von der deutschen Poeterey, p. 55. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 35 

their source, and the latter are, furthermore, by no means epoch-making 
cases. The majority of them bear no clew to their origin except simi- 
larity to the Conjectures and, likewise, to many similar treatises, and 
they leave us in doubt whether they were original with their authors, 
whether they owe their origin to Young's essay, or whether they were 
derived from other foreign sources or from German precursors. These 
two kinds of passages are given in Section II of the Appendix. The 
third category of the passages in question can be traced with certainty 
to other sources than the Conjectures, and these will now be con- 
sidered. 

Many of the passages in this group occur in the works of Lessing. 
No one had studied and applied both home and foreign literary criticism 
more comprehensively and effectively than he, and yet, without ever 
quoting the Conjectures, however fittingly he might have done so, he 
continues after their publication to quote other sources, both foreign 
and native. He quotes Diderot as to genius, invention, and poetic fire, 
and concerning the uselessness of rules and the necessity of following 
nature. 121 As to the imitation of nature, of which the Conjectures make 
so much, he had also said previously: "Not only Batteux, but also 
Horace and Aristotle say: Imitate nature!" 122 And speaking of giving 
material encouragement, and offering rewards, to men of genius Lessing 
says in the words of Meinhardt: "The true genius, like a dashing river, 
makes its way alone through the greatest obstacles. . . . Encour- 
agements can never produce a genius." 123 But the most striking evi- 
dence of Lessing's independence of Young's essay is shown where he 
speaks of the poet as a creator. However forbiddingly the Conjectures 
limit their argument that genius has creative power, this is nevertheless 
their most significant argument. But independently of Young's essay 
Lessing speaks of the poet as the "mortal creator" and says his work 
ought to resemble that of the "eternal creator." 124 In the very year in 
which the Conjectures were published Lessing writes that he has Joseph 
Warton's essay "On the Genius and Writings of Pope" lying open 
before him, the book which was dedicated by its author to Young and 
which seems to have been one of the principal sources of the ideas ex- 
pressed in the Conjectures. Lessing quotes from this book as to the 



121 Vol. X, p. 142. 

122 Vol. V, p. 387. 

,23 Vol. VIII, p. 283. 
124 Vol. X, p. 120. 



36 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

"genuine poet, of a lively, plastic imagination, the true maker, or 
creator. " 125 

Gellert, Hamann, and Winkelmann also voice many of Young's ideas, 
but they quote them from other sources than the Conjectures. Gel- 
lert says that all true literary rules are but principles of nature, and in 
regard to them he says, we must read the works of the ancients "in the 
same spirit in which they were written, " and he quotes these ideas from 
Pope's Essay on Criticism. 126 Hamann speaks of genius as a sort of 
deity, and he does so sometimes with reference to Socrates, 127 and some- 
times with reference to the Scriptures. 128 Winkelmann, the ardent advo- 
cator of following nature in literature and art, says also after the publica- 
tion of the Conjectures that nature, and not the writings of others, are 
to be imitated, and as authority for this principle he quotes the an- 
cients. 129 

Gerstenberg's " Schleswigsche Literaturbrief e " continue to advocate 
Young's literary principles and to quote them from other sources than 
the Conjectures. As to translating of original literary works Cowley 
is quoted, 130 and as to the relative value of translations and originals a 
French authority is cited. 131 Pope is quoted to the effect that the essen- 
tial characteristic of a genius is the power of invention, 132 and also as to 
poetic fire, or vivida vis animi, as he says in the introduction to his 
translation of Homer. 133 As to the misuse of literary rules and also con- 
cerning the creative power of the imagination, which form the main 
issue of the Conjectures, Gerstenberg quotes Thomas Warton's far- 
reaching Observations on the Fairy Queen. lu He quotes also Aristotle 
as to poetic creation. 135 As to the passions as factors in composition, 
about which the Conjectures speak so forcefully, Gerstenberg quotes 
the Elements of Criticism by Home, or Lord Karnes. 136 As to the dis- 
covery and awakening of genius Gerstenberg quotes a French passage. 1 ' 7 

25 Vol. VIII, p. 230. 

M Gellert, Vol. VIII, p. 91. 

» Vol. II, p. 38. 

» Vol. II, p. 92. 

29 Vol. I, p. 87. 

30 Deutsche LUeraturdenkmale, Vol. XXIX, p. 95. 

31 Same, Vol. XXIX, p. 96. 

32 Same, Vol. XXX, p. 227. 

33 Same, Vol. XXIX, p. 18. 

34 Same, Vol. XXIX, pp. 41-42. 

36 Vol. XXX, p. 223. 
38 Same, Vol. XXIX, p. 125. 

37 Same, Vol. XXX, p. 220. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 37 

Approaching Herder now, we come to that German writer who might 
seem to be the most exhaustive imitator of the Conjectures. Most 
of his numerous and close parallels to the Conjectures, however, give 
no clew to their origin except similarity, and that they bear likewise 
to a multitude of other possible sources. But the following passages be 
ascribes expressly to other sources than Young's essay. How well he 
could have made the Conjectures the basis for his discussions of the poet 
as a creator, but he uses other authorities. From Bacon he quotes 
to the effect that it is a fiery imagination which makes the poet, the crea- 
tor in science, and the bringer of new light, and that it is by virtue of 
this creative power that the genius creates a new world within and 
around us. 138 From Klopstock he quotes a definition of genius, 139 and 
employs also his special term for creative genius, namely "Geistschop- 
fer." 140 After the statement "I continue in the technical language of 
Baumgarten" by way of preface, Herder quotes from this author con- 
cerning the natural aesthetics and the superiority over rules of an imagi- 
native and fiery genius. 141 For the most explicit definition of genius 
Herder takes the assertions of Socrates concerning his Daimonion as 
basis. "Like Socrates," he says, "all great men have a genius, which 
forms the soul of their soul, and leads them along the course fixed for 
them by nature, and guides all their sensation, ideas, and actions." 142 
And in the following year he repeats: "I believe every man has a genius, 
that is, deep in his soul he has a certain divine, prophetic gift, which 
guides him, a light which, if we do not completely blunt and extinguish 
it, will suddenly light our way at the darkest point of a crossroad. Such 
was the Daimonion of Socrates, and only certain attentive, superior, 
and unsophisticated souls can notice this genius. " 143 As to the awaken- 
ing of genius, concerning which the Conjectures speak of "men of genius 
striking fire against each other," Herder quotes Plato saying, "as a 
magnet by contact transfers its power to numberless other bodies, so a 
genius, by his continuous miracles, will inspire other men of genius." 144 
Speaking of Shakespeare's creative power Herder says, it was as if he 
said "be," and "there was," thus using the words of the Creator accord- 

138 Vol. VIII, p. 329. 

139 Vol. VIII, p. 222. 
""Vol. I, p. 381. 

« Vol. IV, p. 23. 

144 Vol. IV, p. 463. 

143 Minor, Hamann in seiner Bedeutung fur die Sturm- und Drangperiode, p. 30. 

M Vol. I, p. 5. 



38 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

ing to the Old Testament. 145 With reference to Psalm 139 and to 
Shakespeare's characterization of the poet as a creator Herder says that 
passions and imagination constitute the creative power of the poet. 146 
In discussing a structure of the poetic imagination he speaks of the " realm 
of possible worlds, " and he is obviously using terminology which comes 
from Leibnitz. 147 He quotes the " Literaturbrief e " as to " inspired 
imagination," 148 and Plato as to "divine inspiration," 149 and as to ob- 
serving and following nature, of which the Conjectures make so much, 
Herder quotes Rousseau and speaks of "an Emil and pupil of nature. " 15 ° 
From the same author he cites another idea which was contained in 
Young's essay, namely the assertion: "The more books, the less wis- 
dom. " 151 

Kant also agrees that the essential characteristic of genius consists 
of a productive imagination. This assertion is in essence the central 
teaching of the Conjectures, but Kant quotes it from Gerard's essay 
on genius. 152 Furthermore, while the Conjectures say, "so boundless 
are the bold excursions of the human mind, that in the vast void beyond 
real existence it can call forth shadowy beings and unknown worlds as 
numerous, as bright, and perhaps as lasting as the stars," 153 Kant is 
obviously not drawing from them, but is using an idea which was adapted 
by his German predecessors directly from Leibnitz, and made a common- 
place in German literary criticism when he says, "I see myself trans- 
ported into the land of possibilities, of fiction and imagination. " 154 The 
term genius, says Kant, comes from the Latin, and he defines it in the 
terms of the ancients, who spoke of a tutelary and prophetic genius, 
calling their poets vates, or prophets, and who called the talent of inven- 
tive imagination genius because they believed that a divine genius 
inspired their ideas. 155 Finally, in addition to the instances so far given 
where Kant mentions other sources than the Conjectures as bases of 
his literary theories, the following statement by Schlapp has a very direct 

146 Vol. VIII, p. 329. 

>« Vol. VIII, pp. 77 and 112. 

"'Vol. I, p. 11. 

148 Vol. I, p. 463. 

149 Vol. I, p. 324. 

150 Vol. II, p. 217. 

151 Vol. I, p. 139. 

162 Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 264. 
153 Conjectures, p. 61. 

164 Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 168. 
1M Same, p. 284. 



YOUNG'S "CONJECTURES" IN GERMANY 39 

bearing on the point in question. He says, among those who have 
written about genius there are to be mentioned in connection with Kant: 
Bouhours, Rapin, Fontenelle, Perrault, Sir William Temple, Shaftes- 
bury, Addison, Dubos, Trublet, Condillac, Louis Racine, Baumgarten, 
Meier, Hurd, Trescho, D'Alembert, Diderot, Sulzer, Helvetius, Young, 
Resewitz, Hamann, J. G. Zimmermann, Abbt, Lessing, Mendelssohn, 
Flogel, Gerstenberg, Duff, Lindner, Herder, Garve, J. A. Schlegel, Vol- 
taire, Platner, Gerard, Lenz, Eberhard, Lavater, M. Engel, J. Ch. Konig. 
"Even if Kant has not consulted all of these authorities," he adds, "it 
is nevertheless to be assumed that the far-reaching influences which went 
out from them have, to some extent, reached him." 156 

This statement as to Kant, however incomplete as a list of others 
besides Young from which Kant might have learned his literary theories, 
applies for the most part equally well to the other German writers that 
are under consideration in this chapter. And a careful study of this 
list of critics and of the numerous precursors of Young that are quoted 
in the Appendix and also of the numerous German treatises similar to 
Young's essay but written independently of it, will make it very probable 
that but few of the German parallels which followed, but do not men- 
tion the Conjectures, owe their origin to them. Moreover, a careful, 
comprehensive consideration of all these possible sources of those German 
parallels to Young's essay which followed it, is absolutely necessary in 
order to judge correctly as to the role which Young's Conjectures played 
in Germany. 

The conclusion will then be based on such facts as have now been 
given, and which may be summarized briefly thus: Long before Young's 
essay was written most of his literary theories, and even his literary 
terminology, were current in Germany. For the most part they had 
come in from without, first from France and then, in a larger measure, 
from England. The most effective propaganda for them in Germany 
up to the time of Young's essay were made by Bodmer and Breitinger, 
by Gellert, 157 and by Lessing. While these men were lecturing and writ- 
ing in support of these doctrines, there sprang up in Germany, and kept 
on coming in from without, particularly from England, a multitude of 
literary and aesthetic treatises similar in various ways and degrees to 
Young's essay. For several decades they continued to appear and 
resulted in the Storm and Stress Period. Young's Conjectures were but 
one among a multitude of factors in that great reconstructive period of 

168 Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 245. 
U7 Grimms deutsches Worterbiich, Genie (9). 



40 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

literary criticism which began, on the larger scale, with Bodmer and 
Breitinger and closed with the Storm and Stress Period, and the Con- 
jectures were neither the most forceful nor a frequently mentioned one 
of these factors. 

After noting these circumstances fully and weighing them carefully, 
we can conclude only that the Conjectures did not exert a decisive 
influence on the literature of Germany. They contain ideas which, 
although often in a different form, were of the greatest importance in 
the development of Germany's literature, and they contributed some- 
thing to the prevalence and force of these ideas. Germany, however, 
does not owe these ideas or their momentum in any decisive measure to 
Young's essay. 158 The literature of Germany would not have been poorer 
as to contents, nor would it have developed along different lines, with- 
out Young's Conjectures on Original Composition. 

158 See also Friedrich Gundolph, Shakespeare und der deutsche Geist, p. 158 ff. 



Conjectures 

On 

Original Composition 

In A 

Letter 

To The 

Author 

of 

Sir Charles Grandison. 



Si habet aliquot tanquam pabulum studii et doctnnae, 
otiosa senectute nihil est jucundius. Cic. 



London: 

Printed for A. Millar, in The Strand; and 
R. and G. Dodsley, in Pall-Mail. 

M.DCC LIX. 



CHAPTER III 

Dear Sir, 

We confess the follies of youth without a blush; not so those of age. 
However, keep me a little in countenance by considering that age wants 
amusements more, though it can justify them less, than the preceding 
periods of life. How you may relish the pastime here sent you, I know 
not. It is miscellaneous in its nature, somewhat licentious in its con- 
duct; and, perhaps, not over-important in its end. However, I have 
endeavored to make some amends by digressing into subjects more 
important, and more suitable to my season of life. A serious thought 
standing single, among many of a lighter nature, will sometimes strike 
the careless wanderer after amusement only, with useful awe: as monu- 
mental marbles scattered in a wide pleasure-garden (and such there are) 
will call to recollection those who would never have sought it in a church- 
yard walk of mournful yews. 

To one such monument I may conduct you, in which is a hidden 
lustre, like the sepulchral lamps of old; but not like them 1 will this be 
extinguished, but shine the brighter for being produced, after so long 
concealment, into open day. 

You remember that your worthy patron, and our common friend, 
put some questions on the serious drama, at the same time when he 
desired our sentiments on original and moral composition. Though I 
despair of breaking through the frozen obstructions of age, and care's 
incumbent cloud, into that flow of thought and brightness of expression 
which such polite subjects 2 require, yet will I hazard some conjectures on 
them. 

I begin with original composition; but, 3 first, a few thoughts on com- 
position in general. Some are of opinion that its growth, at present, is 
too luxuriant, and that the press is overcharged. Overcharged, I think, 
it could never be, if none were admitted but such as brought their 
imprimatur from sound understanding and the public good. Wit, indeed, 
however brilliant, should not be permitted to gaze self-enamoured on its 
useless charms in that fountain of fame, (if so I may call the press,) 
if beauty is all that it has to boast; but, like the first Brutus, it should 

1 those 

2 subjects so polite 

3 Composition; and the more willingly, as it seems an original subject to me, who 
have seen nothing hitherto written on it. But 



44 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

sacrifice its most darling offspring to the sacred interests of virtue, and 
real service of mankind. 

This restriction allowed, the more composition the better. To men 
of letters and leisure, it is not only a noble amusement, but a sweet 
refuge; it improves their parts and promotes their peace; it opens a 
back-door out of the bustle of this busy and idle world into a delicious 
garden of moral and intellectual fruits and flowers, the key of which is 
denied to the rest of mankind. When stung with idle anxieties, or 
teazed with fruitless impertinence, or yawning over insipid diversions, 
then we perceive the blessing of a lettered recess. With what a gust 
do we retire to our disinterested and immortal friends in our closet and 
find our minds, when applied to some favorite theme, as naturally and as 
easily quieted and refreshed as a peevish child (and peevish children 
are we all till we fall asleep) when laid to the breast! Our happiness no 
longer lives on charity; nor bids fair for a fall by leaning on that most 
precarious and thorny pillow, another's pleasure, for our repose. How 
independent of the world is he who can daily find new acquaintance 
that at once entertain and improve him, in the little world, the minute 
but fruitful creation of his own mind! 

These advantages composition affords us, whether we write ourselves, 
or in more humble amusement peruse the works of others. While we 
bustle through the thronged walks of public life, it gives us a respite, at 
least, from care; a pleasing pause of refreshing recollection. If the 
country is our choice or fate, there it rescues us from sloth and sensuality, 
which, like obscene vermin, are apt gradually to creep unperceived into 
the delightful bowers of our retirement and to poison all its sweets. 
Conscious guilt robs the rose of its scent, the lily of its lustre; and makes 
an Eden a deflowered and dismal scene. 

Moreover, if we consider life's endless evils, what can be more pru- 
dent than to provide for consolation under them? A consolation under 
them the wisest of men have found in the pleasures of the pen. Witness, 
among many more, Thucydides, Xenophon, Tully, Ovid, Seneca, Pliny 
the younger, who says, In uxoris infirmilate, et amicorum periculo, aut 
morte turbatus, ad studia, unicum doloris levamentum, confugio. And why 
not add to these their modern equals, Raleigh, 4 Milton, Clarendon, 
under the same shield, unwounded by misfortune, and nobly smiling in 
distress? 

Composition was a cordial to these under the frowns of fortune; but 
evils there are which her smiles cannot prevent or cure. Among these 
' Chaucer, Raleigh, Bacon, 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 45 

are the languors of old age. If those are held honorable who in a hand 
benumbed by time have grasped the just sword in defence of their country, 
shall they be less esteemed whose unsteady pen vibrates to the last in 
the cause of religion, of virtue, of learning? Both these are happy in 
this, that, by fixing their attention on objects most important, they 
escape numberless little anxieties and that tedium vitae which hangs often 
so heavy on its evening hours. May not this insinuate some apology 
for my spilling ink and spoiling paper so late in life? 

But there are who write with vigor and success to the world's delight 
and their own renown. These are the glorious fruits where genius 
prevails. The mind of a man of genius is a fertile and pleasant field; 
pleasant as Elysium, and fertile as Tempe; it enjoys a perpetual spring. 
Of that spring originals are the fairest flowers: imitations are of quicker 
growth, but fainter bloom. Imitations are of two kinds; one of nature, 
one of authors: the first we call "originals," and confine the term "imi- 
tation" to the second. I shall not enter into the curious inquiry of what 
is, or is not, strictly speaking, original, content with what all must allow, 
that some compositions are more so than others; and the more they are 
so, I say, the better. Originals are, and ought to be, great favorites, 
for they are great benefactors; they extend the republic of letters, and 
add a new province to its dominion: imitators only give us a sort of 
duplicates of what we had, possibly much better, before; increasing the 
mere drug of books, while all that makes them valuable, knowledge and 
genius, are at a stand. The pen of an original writer, like Armida's 
wand, out of a barren waste calls a blooming spring: out of that bloom- 
ing spring an imitator is a transplanter of laurels, which sometimes die 
on removal, always languish in a foreign soil. 

But suppose an imitator to be most excellent, (and such there are,) 
yet still he but nobly builds on another's foundation; his debt is, at 
least, equal to his glory; which, therefore, on the balance, cannot be 
very great. On the contrary, an original, though but indifferent (its 
originality being set aside,) yet has something to boast; it is something 
to say with him in Horace, 

Meo sum pauper in aere; 
and to share ambition with no less than Caesar, who declared he had 
rather be the first in a village than the second at Rome. 

Still ' farther: an imitator shares his crown, if he has one, with the 
chosen object of his imitation; an original enjoys an undivided applause. 
An original may be said to be of a vegetable nature: it rises spontane- 
ously from the vital root of genius; it grows, it is not made; imitations 



46 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

are often a sort of manufacture wrought up by those mechanics, art and 
labor, out of pre-existent materials not their own. 

Again: we read imitation with somewhat of his languor who listens 
to a twice-told tale: our spirits rouse at an original: that is a perfect 
stranger, and all throng to learn what news from a foreign land; and 
though it comes, like an Indian prince, adorned with feathers only, 
having little of weight, yet of our attention it will rob the more solid, 
if not equally new. Thus every telescope is lifted at a new discovered 
star: it makes a hundred astronomers in a moment, and denies equal 
notice to the sun. But if an original, by being as excellent as new, adds 
admiration to surprise, then are we at the writer's mercy; on the strong 
wing of his imagination we are snatched from Britain to Italy, from 
climate to climate, from pleasure to pleasure; we have no home, no 
thought, of our own, till the magician drops his pen; and then, falling 
down into ourselves, we awake to flat realities, lamenting the change, 
like the beggar who dreamt himself a prince. 

It is with thoughts as it is with words, and with both as with men: 
they may grow old and die. Words tarnished by passing through the 
mouths of the vulgar, are laid aside as inelegant and obsolete. So 
thoughts, when become too common, should lose their currency; and 
we should send new metal to the mint, that is, new meaning to the 
press. The division of tongues at Babel did not more effectually debar 
men from "making themselves a name" (as the Scripture speaks) than 
the too great concurrence or union of tongues will do for ever. We may 
as well grow good by another's virtue, or fat by another's food, as famous 
by another's thought. The world will pay its debt of praise but once, 
and, instead of applauding, explode a second demand as a cheat. 

If it is said that most of the Latin classics, and all the Greek, except, 
perhaps, Homer, Pindar, and Anacreon, are in the number of imitators, 
yet receive our highest applause; our answer is, that they, though not 
real, are accidental originals; the works they imitated, few excepted, are 
lost; they, on their fathers' decease, enter as lawful heirs on their estates 
in fame: the fathers of our copyists are still in possession; and secured 
in it, in spite of Goths and flames, by the perpetuating power of the 
press. Very late must a modern imitator's fame arrive, if it waits for 
their decease. 

An original enters early upon reputation: Fame, fond of new glories, 
sounds her trumpet in triumph at its birth; and yet how few are awakened 
by it into the noble ambition of like attempts! Ambition is sometimes 
no vice in life; it is always a virtue in composition. High in the towering 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 47 

Alps is the fountain of the Po; high in fame, and in antiquity, is the 
fountain of an imitator's undertaking; but the river and the imitation 
humbly creep along the vale. So few are our originals, that, if all other 
books were to be burnt, the lettered world would resemble some metropo- 
lis in flames, where a few incombustible buildings, a fortress, temple, or 
tower, lift their heads in melancholy grandeur, amid the mighty ruin. 
Compared with this conflagration, old Omar lighted up but a small 
bonfire when he heated the baths of the barbarians, for eight months 
together, with the famed Alexandrian library's inestimable spoils, that 
no profane book might obstruct the triumphant progress of his holy 
Alcoran round the globe. 

But why are originals so few? Not because the writer's harvest is 
over, the great reapers of antiquity having left nothing to be gleaned 
after them; nor because the human mind's teeming time is past, or 
because it is incapable of putting forth unprecedented births; but because 
illustrious examples engross, prejudice, and intimidate. They engross 
our attention, and so prevent a due inspection of ourselves; they preju- 
dice our judgment in favor of their abilities, and so lessen the sense of 
our own; and they intimidate us with the splendor of their renown, and 
thus under diffidence bury our strength. Nature's impossibilities, and 
those of diffidence, lie wide asunder. 

Let it not be suspected that I would weakly insinuate anything in 
favor of the moderns, as compared with ancient authors; no, I am 
lamenting their great inferiority. But I think it is no necessary inferi- 
ority; that it is not from Divine destination, but from some cause far 
beneath the moon. 5 I think that human souls, through all periods, are 
equal; that due care and exertion would set us nearer our immortal 
predecessors than we are at present; and he who questions and confutes 
this, will show abilities not a little tending toward a proof of that equality 
which he denies. 

After all, the first ancients had no merit in being originals: they could 
not be imitators. Modern writers have a choice to make, and therefore 
have a merit in their power. They may soar in the regions of liberty, or 
move in the soft fetters of easy imitation; and imitation has as many 
plausible reasons to urge as pleasure had to offer to Hercules. Hercules 
made the choice of a hero and so became immortal. 

Yet let not assertors of classic excellence imagine that I deny the 
tribute it so well deserves. He that admires not ancient authors, 
betrays a secret he would conceal, and tells the world that he does not 

8 Enquiry into the life of Homer, p. 76. 



48 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

understand them. Let us be as far from neglecting, as from copying, 
their admirable compositions: sacred be their rights, and inviolable their 
fame. Let our understanding feed on theirs; they afford the noblest 
nourishment; but let them nourish, not annihilate, our own. When we 
read, let our imagination kindle at their charms ; when we write, let our 
judgment shut them out of our thoughts; treat even Homer himself as 
his royal admirer was treated by the cynic, — bid him stand aside, nor 
shade our composition from the beams of our own genius; for nothing 
original can rise, nothing immortal can ripen, in any other sun. 

"Must we then," you say, "not imitate ancient authors?" Imitate 
them by all means; but imitate aright. He that imitates the divine 
Iliad does not imitate Homer; but he who takes the same method which 
Homer took for arriving at a capacity of accomplishing a work so great. 
Tread in his steps to the sole fountain of immortality; drink where he 
drank, at the true Helicon, that is, at the breast of nature. Imitate; 
but imitate not the composition, but the man. For may not this para- 
dox pass into a maxim? — namely, "The less we copy the renowned an- 
cients, we shall resemble them the more." 

But possibly you may reply that you must either imitate Homer, or 
depart from nature. No so: for suppose you were to change place, 
in time, with Homer, then, if you write naturally, you might as well 
charge Homer with an imitation of you. Can you be said to imitate 
Homer for writing so as you would have written, if Homer had never 
been? As far as a regard to nature and sound sense will permit a de- 
parture from, your great predecessors, so far ambitiously depart from 
them ; the farther from them in similitude, the nearer are you to them in 
excellence; you rise by it into an original; become a noble collateral, not 
an humble descendant from them. Let us build our compositions with 
the spirit and in the taste of the ancients; but not with their materials: 
thus will they resemble the structures of Pericles at Athens, which 
Plutarch commends for having had an air of antiquity as soon as they 
were built. All eminence and distinction lies out of the beaten road; 
excursion and deviation are necessary to find it; and the more remote 
your path from the highway, the more reputable, if, like poor Gulliver, 
(of whom anon,) you fall not into a ditch in your way to glory. 

What glory to come near, what glory to reach, what glory (presump- 
tuous thought!) to surpass, our predecessors! And is that, then, in 
nature absolutely impossible? Or is it not rather contrary to nature to 
fail in it? Nature herself sets the ladder, all wanting is our ambition 
to climb. For, by the bounty of nature, we are as strong as our pre- 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 49 

decessors, and by the favor of time (which is but another round in 
nature's scale) we stand on higher ground. As to the first, were they 
more than men? Or are we less? Are not our minds cast in the same 
mould with those before the flood? The flood affected matter; mind 
escaped. As to the second, though we are moderns, the world is an 
ancient; more ancient far than when they filled it with their fame, whom 
we most admire. 6 Have we not their beauties, as stars, to guide; their 
defects, as rocks, to be shunned; the judgment of ages on both, as a 
chart to conduct, and a sure helm to steer us in our passage to greater 
perfection than theirs? And shall we be stopped in our rival pretensions 
to fame by this just reproof? 

Stat contra, dicitque tibi tua pagina, Fur es. — Mart. 
It is by a sort of noble contagion, from a general familiarity with their 
writings, and not by any particular sordid theft, that we can be the 
better for those who went before us. Hope we from plagiarism any 
dominion in literature, as that of Rome arose from a nest of thieves? 

Rome was a powerful ally to many states; ancient authors are our 
powerful allies; but we must take heed that they do not succor till they 
enslave, after the manner of Rome. Too formidable an idea of their 
superiority, like a spectre, would fright us out of a proper use of our wits, 
and dwarf our understanding, by making a giant of theirs. Too great 
awe for them lays genius under restraint and denies it that free scope, 
that full elbow-room, which is a requisite for striking its most masterly 
strokes. Genius is a master- workman, learning is but an instrument; 
and an instrument, though most valuable, yet not always indispensable. 
Heaven will not admit of a partner in the accomplishment of some 
favorite spirits; but rejecting all human means, assumes the whole 
glory to itself. Have not some, though not famed for erudition, so 
written as almost to persuade us that they shone brighter and soared 
higher for escaping the boasted aid of that proud ally? 

Nor is it strange; for what, for the most part, mean we by genius but 
the power of accomplishing great things without the means generally 
reputed necessary to that end? A genius differs from a good under- 
standing, as a magician from a good architect; that raises his structure 
by means invisible, this by the skilful use of common tools. Hence 
genius has ever been supposed to partake of something Divine. Nemo 
unquam vir magnusfuit, sine aliquo afflatu divino. 

Learning, destitute of this superior aid, is fond and proud of what 
has cost it much pains; is a great lover of rules, and boaster of famed 

• they whom we most admire filled it with their fame. 



50 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

examples. As beauties less perfect, who owe half their charms to 
cautious art, she 7 inveighs against natural, unstudied graces and small, 
harmless indecorums, and sets rigid bounds to that liberty to which 
genius often owes its supreme glory, but the non-genius its frequent 
ruin. For unprescribed beauties and unexampled excellence, which 
are characteristics of genius, lie without the pale of learning's authorities 
and laws; which pale, genius must leap to come at them: but by that 
leap, if genius is wanting, we break our necks: we lose that little credit 
which possibly we might have enjoyed before. For rules, like crutches, 
are a needful aid to the lame, though an impediment to the strong. A 
Homer casts them away and, like Achilles, 

Jura negat sibi nata, nihil non arrogat, 
by native force of mind. There is something in poetry beyond prose 
reason; there are mysteries in it not to be explained, but admired, which 
render mere prose-men infidels to their divinity. And here pardon a 
second paradox: namely, "Genius often then deserves most to be 
praised when it is most sure to be condemned; that is, when its excellence, 
from mounting high, to weak eyes is quite out of sight." 

If I might speak farther of learning and genius, I would compare 
genius to virtue, and learning to riches. As riches are most wanted 
where there is least virtue, so learning where there is least genius. As 
virtue without much riches can give happiness, so genius without much 
learning can give renown. As it is said in Terence, Pecuniam negligere 
inter dum maximum est lucrum, so to neglect of learning genius sometimes 
owes its greater glory. Genius, therefore, leaves but the second place, 
among men of letters, to the learned. It is their merit and ambition 
to fling light on the works of genius, and point out its charms. We 
most justly reverence their informing radius for that favor; but we must 
much more admire the radiant stars pointed out by them. 

A star of the first magnitude among the moderns was Shakespeare; 
among the ancients, Pindar; who, as Vossius tells us, boasted of his 
no-learning, calling himself the eagle, for his flight above it. And such 
genii as these may, indeed, have much reliance on their own native 
powers. For genius may be compared to the body's natural strength; 8 
learning to the superinduced accoutrements of arms. If the first is 
equal to the proposed exploit, the latter rather encumbers than assists; 
rather retards, than promotes, the victory. Sacer nobis inest Deus, says 
Seneca. With regard to the moral world, conscience — with regard to 

' learning 

8 to the natural strength of the body 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 51 

the intellectual, genius — is that god within. Genius can set us right 
in composition without the rules of the learned, as conscience sets us 
right in life without the laws of the land; this, singly, can make us good, 
as men; that, singly, as writers, can sometimes make us great. 

I say "sometimes," because there is a genius which stands in need of 
learning to make it shine. Of genius there are two species, an earlier 
and a later; or call them infantine and adult. An adult genius comes 
out of nature's hand, as Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth and 
mature: Shakespeare's genius was of this kind: on the contrary, Swift 
stumbled at the threshold, and set out for distinction on feeble knees. 
His was an infantine genius; a genius, which, like other infants, must be 
nursed and educated, or it will come to nought. Learning is its nurse 
and tutor; but this nurse may overlay with an indigested load, which 
smothers common sense; and this tutor may mislead with pedantic 
prejudice, which vitiates the best understanding. As too great admirers 
of the fathers of the church have sometimes set up their authority 
against the true sense of Scripture, so too great admirers of the classical 
fathers have sometimes set up their authority, or example, against reason. 

Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu fabula. 
So says Horace, so says ancient example. But reason has not subscribed. 
I know but one book that can justify our implicit acquiescence in it. 9 

But superstition 10 set aside, the classics are forever our rightful and 
revered masters in composition, and our understandings bow before them. 
But when? When a master is wanted; which sometimes, as I have 
shown, is not the case. Some are pupils of nature only, nor go farther 
to school. From such we reap often a double advantage; they not only 
rival the reputation of the great ancient authors, but also reduce the 
number of mean ones among the moderns. For, when they enter on 
subjects which have been in former hands, such is their superiority, 
that, like a tenth wave, they overwhelm and bury in oblivion all that 
went before; and thus not only enrich and adorn, but remove a load, 
and lessen the labor, of the lettered world. 

"But," you say, "since originals can arise from genius only, and 
since genius is so very rare, it is scarce worth while to labor a point so 
much from which we can reasonably expect so little." To show that 
genius is not so very rare as you imagine, I shall point out strong instan- 
ces of it in a far distant quarter from that mentioned above. The minds 

9 it: and (by the way) on that book a noble disdain of undue deference to prior 
opinion has lately cast a new and inestimable light. 

10 for our predecessors 



52 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

of the schoolmen were almost as much cloistered as their bodies; they 
had but little learning and few books; yet may the most learned be 
struck with some astonishment at their so singular natural sagacity and 
most exquisite edge of thought. Who would expect to find Pindar and 
Scotus, Shakespeare and Aquinas, of the same party? Both equally 
show an original, unindebted energy; the vigor igneus and coelestis origo 
burn in both and leave us in doubt if 11 genius is more evident in the 
sublime flights and beauteous flowers of poetry, or in the profound 
penetrations and marvellously keen and minute distinctions called the 
"thorns of the schools." There might have been more able consuls 
called from the plow than ever arrived at that honor; many a genius, 
probably, there has been which could neither write nor read. So that 
genius, that supreme lustre of literature, is less rare than you conceive. 

By the praise of genius we detract not from learning; we detract 
not from the value of gold by saying that a diamond has greater still. 
He who disregards learning, shows that he wants its aid; and he that 
overvalues it, shows that its aid has done him harm. Over-valued, 
indeed, it cannot be, if genius, as to composition, is valued more. Learn- 
ing we thank, genius we revere; that gives us pleasure, this gives us 
rapture; that informs, this inspires, and is itself inspired; for genius is 
from heaven, learning from man: this sets us above the low and illit- 
erate; that, above the learned and polite. Learning is borrowed know- 
ledge; genius is knowledge innate, and quite our own. Therefore, as 
Bacon observes, it may take a nobler name, and be called "wisdom"; 
in which sense of wisdom, some are born wise. 

But here a caution is necessary against the most fatal of errors in 
those automats, those "self-taught philosophers" of our age, who set 
up genius, and often mere fancied genius, not only above human learn- 
ing, but divine truth. I have called genius "wisdom"; but let it be 
remembered that in the most renowned ages of the most refined heathen 
wisdom, (and theirs is not Christian,) " the world by wisdom knew not 
God; and it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those 
that believed." In the fairyland of fancy, genius may wander wild; 
there it has a creative power, and may reign arbitrarily over its own 
empire of chimeras. The wide field of nature also lies open before it, 
where it may range unconfined, make what discoveries it can, and sport 
with its infinite objects uncontrolled, as far as visible nature extends, 
painting them as wantonly as it will. But what painter of the most 
unbounded and exalted genius can give us the true portrait of a seraph? 

11 whether 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 53 

He can give us only what by his own, or others' eyes, has been seen; 
though that indeed infinitely compounded, raised, burlesqued, dishon- 
ored, or adorned. In like manner, who can give us Divine truth unre- 
vealed? Much less should any presume to set aside Divine truth when 
revealed, as incongruous to their own sagacities. Is this too serious 
for my subject? I shall be more so before I close. 

Having put in a caveat against the most fatal of errors from the too 
great indulgence of genius, return we now to that too great suppression 
of it, which is detrimental to composition, and endeavor to rescue the 
writer, as well as the man. I have said that some are born wise; but 
they, like those that are born rich, by neglecting the cultivation and 
produce of their own possessions, and by running in debt, may be beg- 
gared at last; and lose their reputations, as younger brothers estates, not 
by being born with less abilities than the rich heir, but at too late an hour. 

Many a great man has been lost to himself and the public purely 
because great ones were born before him. Hermias, in his Collections 
on Homer's blindness, says that Homer requesting the Gods to grant 
him a sight of Achilles, that hero rose, but in armor so bright that it 
struck Homer blind with the blaze. Let not the blaze of even Homer's 
muse darken us to the discernment of our own powers, which may 
possibly set us above the rank of imitators; who, though most excellent, 
and even immortal, (as some of them are,) yet are still but Dii minorum 
gentium, nor can expect the largest share of incense, the greatest profu- 
sion of praise, on their secondary altars. 

But farther still: a spirit of imitation hath many ill effects; I shall 
confine myself to three. First, it deprives the liberal and politer arts 
of an advantage which the mechanic enjoy: in these, men are ever 
endeavoring to go beyond their predecessors; in the former, to follow 
them. And since copies surpass not their originals, as streams rise not 
higher than their spring, rarely so high; hence, while arts mechanic are in 
perpetual progress and increase, the liberal are in the retrogradation 
and decay. These resemble pyramids, — are broad at bottom, but lessen 
exceedingly as they rise; those resemble rivers which, from a small 
fountain-head, are spreading ever wider and wider as they run. Hence 
it is evident that different portions of understanding are not (as some 
imagine) allotted to different periods of time; for we see, in the same 
period, understanding rising in one set of artists and declining in another. 
Therefore nature stands absolved, and the inferiority of our composition 12 
must be charged on ourselves. 

12 our inferiority in composition 



54 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Nay, so far are we from complying with a necessity which nature lays 
us under, that, secondly, by a spirit of imitation we counteract nature 
and thwart her design. She brings us into the world all originals. No 
two faces, no two minds, are just alike; but all bear nature's evident 
mark of separation on them. Born originals, how comes it to pass 
that we die copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to 
years of indiscretion, (so let me speak,) snatches the pen and blots out 
nature's mark of separation, cancels her kind intention, destroys all 
mental individuality. The lettered world no longer consists of singulars; 
it is a medley, a mass; and a hundred books, at bottom, are but one. 
Why are monkeys such masters of mimicry? Why receive they such a 
talent at imitation? Is it not as the Spartan slaves received a licence 
for ebriety, — that their betters might be ashamed of it? 

The third fault to be found with a spirit of imitation is, that, with 
great incongruity, it makes us poor and proud; makes us think little 
and write much; gives us huge folios which are little better than more 
reputable cushions to promote our repose. Have not some sevenfold 
volumes put us in mind of Ovid's sevenfold channels of the Nile at the 
conflagration? — 

Ostia septem 
Pulverulenta vacant septem sine flumine valles. 
Such leaden labors are like Lycurgus's iron money, which was so much 
less in value than in bulk that it required barns for strong boxes, and a 
yoke of oxen to draw five hundred pounds. 

But notwithstanding these disadvantages of imitation, imitation 
must be the lot (and often an honorable lot it is) of most writers. If 
there is a famine of invention in the land, like Joseph's brethren, we 
must travel far for food ; we must visit the remote and rich ancients. But 
an inventive genius may safely stay at home; that, like the widow's 
cruse, is divinely replenished from within, and affords us a miraculous 
delight. Whether our own genius be such or not, we diligently should 
inquire, that we may not go begging with gold in our purse; for there is a 
mine in man which must be deeply dug ere we can conjecture its con- 
tents. Another often sees that in us which we see not ourselves; and 
may there not be that in us which is unseen by both? That there may, 
chance often discovers, either by a luckily chosen theme, or a mighty 
premium, or an absolute necessity of exertion, or a noble stroke of emula- 
tion from another's glory; as that on Thucydides, from hearing Herodo- 
tus repeat part of his history at the Olympic games. Had there been no 
Herodotus, there might have been no Thucydides, and the world's 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 55 

admiration might have begun at Livy for excellence in that province 
of the pen. Demosthenes had the same stimulation on hearing Callis- 
tratus; or Tully might have been the first of consummate renown at the 
bar. 

Quite clear of the dispute concerning ancient and modern learning, 
we speak not of performance, but powers. The modern powers are 
equal to those before them; modern performance in general is deplorably 
short. How great are the names just mentioned! Yet who will dare 
affirm that as great may not rise up in some future or even in the present 
age? Reasons there are why talents may not appear, none why they 
may not exist, as much in one period as another. An evocation of 
vegetable fruits depends on rain, air, and sun; an evocation of the fruits 
of genius no less depends on externals. What a marvellous crop bore 
it in Greece and Rome! and what a marvellous sunshine did it there 
enjoy! what encouragement from the nature of their governments, and 
the spirit of their people! Virgil and Horace owed their divine talents 
to Heaven, their immortal works to men: thank Maecenas and Augustus 
for them. Had it not been for these, the genius of those poets had lain 
buried in their ashes. Athens expended on her theatre, painting, sculp- 
ture, and architecture, a tax levied for the support of a war. Casear 
dropped his papers when Tully spoke, and Philip trembled at the voice 
of Demosthenes. And has there shone 13 but one Tully, one Demosthenes, 
in so long a course of years? The powerful eloquence of them both in 
one stream should never bear me down into the melancholy persuasion 
that several have not been born, though they have not emerged. The 
sun as much exists in a cloudy day as in a clear: it is outward, accidental 
circumstances that, with regard to genius either in nation or age, 

Collectas fugat nubes, solemque reducit. — Virg. 
As great, perhaps greater than those mentioned, (presumptuous as it 
may sound,) may possibly arise; for who hath fathomed the mind of 
man? Its bounds are as unknown as those of the creation; since the 
birth of which, perhaps, not one has so far exerted as not to leave his 
possibilities beyond his attainments, his powers beyond his exploits. 
Forming our judgments altogether by what has been done without 
knowing, or at all inquiring, what possibly might have been done, we 
naturally enough fall into too mean an opinion of the human mind. 
If a sketch of the divine Iliad before Homer wrote had been given to 
mankind by some superior being or otherwise, its execution would, 
probably, have appeared beyond the power of man. Now, to surpass 

u arisen 



56 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

it, we think impossible. As the first of these opinions would evidently 
have been a mistake, why may not the second be so too? Both are 
founded on the same bottom, — on our ignorance of the possible dimen- 
sions of the mind of man. 

Nor are we only ignorant of the dimensions of the human mind in 
general, but even of our own. That a man may be scarce less ignorant 
of his own powers than an oyster of its pearl, or a rock of its diamond; 
that he may possess dormant, unsuspected abilities, till awakened by 
loud calls, or stung up by striking emergencies; is evident from the sudden 
eruption of some men out of perfect obscurity into public admiration on 
the strong impulse of some animating occasion; not more to the world's 
great surprise than their own. Few authors of distinction but have ex- 
perienced something of this nature at the first beamings of their yet 
unsuspected genius on their hitherto dark composition. The writer 
starts at it as at a lucid meteor in the night, is much surprised, can 
scarce believe it true. During his happy confusion it may be said to 
him, as to Eve at the lake, 

"What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself." — Milton 

Genius, in this view, is like a dear friend in our company under 
disguise; who, while we are lamenting his absence, drops his mask, 
striking us at once with equal surprise and joy. This sensation which I 
speak of in a writer, might favor, and so promote, the fable of poetic 
inspiration. A poet of a strong imagination and stronger vanity, on 
feeling it, might naturally enough realize the world's mere compliment 
and think himself truly inspired: which is not improbable; for enthu- 
siasts of all kinds do no less. 

Since it is plain that men may be strangers to their own abilities, 
and by thinking meanly of them without just cause may possibly lose a 
name, perhaps a name immortal, I would find some means to prevent 
these evils. Whatever promotes virtue, promotes something more, and 
carries its good influence beyond the moral man: to prevent these evils, 
I borrow two golden rules from ethics, which are no less golden in compo- 
sition than in life: 1. "Know thyself"; 2. "Reverence thyself." I 
design to repay ethics in a future letter by two rules from rhetoric for its 
service. 

1. "Know thyself." Of ourselves it may be said, as Martial says 
of a bad neighbor, 

Nil tam prope, proculque nobis. 
Therefore dive deep into thy bosom; learn the depth, extent, bias, and 
full fort of thy mind; contract full intimacy with the stranger within 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 5 7 

thee; excite and cherish every spark of intellectual light and heat, how- 
ever smothered under former negligence, or scattered through the dull, 
dark mass of common thoughts; and, collecting them into a body, let 
thy genius rise (if a genius thou hast) as the sun from chaos; and if I 
should then say, like an Indian, "Worship it," (though too bold,) yet 
should I say little more than my second rule enjoins, namely, " Reverence 
thyself." 

That is, let not great examples or authorities browbeat thy reason 
into too great a diffidence of thyself: thyself so reverence as to prefer 
the native growth of thy own mind to the richest import from abroad: 
such borrowed riches make us poor. The man who thus reverences 
himself, will soon find the world's reverence to follow his own. His 
works will stand distinguished; his the sole property of them; which 
property alone can confer the noble title of an author: that is, of one 
who, to speak accurately, thinks and composes; while other invaders of 
the press, how voluminous and learned soever, (with due respect be it 
spoken,) only read and write. 

This is the difference between those two luminaries in literature, the 
well-accomplished scholar and the divinely-inspired enthusiast: the 
first is as the bright morning star: the second, as the rising sun. The 
writer who neglects those two rules above, will never stand alone: he 
makes one of a group, and thinks in wretched unanimity with the throng. 
Incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by their 
abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; opens 
not the least vista through the gloom of ordinary writers into the bright 
walks of rare imagination and singular design. While the true genius is 
crossing all public roads into fresh untrodden ground, he, up to the knees 
in antiquity, is treading the sacred footsteps of great examples with the 
blind veneration of a bigot saluting the papal toe; comfortably hoping 
full absolution for the sins of his own understanding from the powerful 
charm of touching his idol's infallibility. 

Such meanness of mind, such prostration of our own powers, pro- 
ceeds from too great admiration of others. Admiration has, generally, 
a degree of two very bad ingredients in it, — of ignorance and of fear, and 
does mischief in composition and in life. Proud as the world is, there is 
more superiority in it given than assumed; and its grandees of all kinds 
owe more of their elevation to the littleness of others' minds, than to 
the greatness of their own. Were not prostrate spirits their voluntary 
pedestals, the figure they would make among mankind would not stand 
so high. Imitators and translators are somewhat of the pedestal-kind, 



58 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

and sometimes rather raise their original's reputation, by showing him 
to be by them inimitable, than their own. Homer has been translated 
into most languages; Aelian tells us that the Indians (hopeful tutors!) 
have taught him to speak their tongue. What expect we from them? 
Not Homer's Achilles, but something which, like Patroclus, assumes his 
name and, at its peril, appears in his stead: nor expect we Homer's 
Ulysses gloriously bursting out of his cloud into royal grandeur, but an 
Ulysses under disguise, and a beggar to the last. Such is that inimi- 
table father of poetry, and oracle of all the wise, whom Lycurgus tran- 
scribed; and for an annual public recital of whose works Solon enacted a 
law; that it is much to be feared that his so numerous translations are 
but as the published testimonials of so many nations and ages, that this 
author, so divine, is untranslated still. 

But here, 

Cynthius aurem vellit; Virg. 
and demands justice for his favorite, and ours. Great things he has 
done; but he might have done greater. What a fall is it from Homer's 
numbers, free as air, lofty, and harmonious as the spheres, into childish 
shackles and tinkling sounds! But, in his fall, he is still great; 

"Nor appears 
Less than archangel ruin'd, and the excess 
Of glory obscured." — Milt. 

Had Milton never wrote, Pope had been less to blame; but when in 
Milton's genius Homer, as it were, personally rose to forbid Britons 
doing him that ignoble wrong, it is less pardonable, by that effeminate 
decoration, to put Achilles in petticoats a second time. How much 
nobler had it been if his numbers had rolled on in full flow, through the 
various modulations of masculine melody, into those grandeurs of 
solemn sound which are indispensably demanded by the native dignity 
of heroic song! How much nobler, if he had resisted the temptation of 
that Gothic demon, which modern poesy, tasting, became mortal! O 
how unlike the deathless, divine harmony of three great names, (how 
justly joined!) of Milton, Greece, and Rome! His verse, but for this 
little speck of mortality, in its extreme parts, as his hero had in his heel, 
like him, had been invulnerable and immortal. But, unfortunately, 
that was undipped in Helicon, as this in Styx. Harmony, as well as 
eloquence, is essential to poesy; and a murder of his music is putting 
half Homer to death. "Blank" is a term of diminution: what we mean 
by "blank verse" is, verse unf alien, uncursed; verse reclaimed, re- 
enthroned in the true language of the gods: who never thundered, nor 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 59 

suffered their Homer to thunder, in rime; and therefore, I beg you, my 
friend, to crown it with some nobler term; nor let the greatness of the 
thing lie under the defamation of such a name. 

But supposing Pope's Iliad to have been perfect in its kind; yet it is a 
translation still; which differs as much from an original, as the moon from 
the sun. 

— Phoeben alieno jusserat igne 
Impleri, solemque suo. Claud. 

But, as nothing is more easy than to write originally wrong, originals 
are not here recommended but under the strong guard of my first rule, — 
"Know thyself." Lucian, who was an original, neglected not this rule, 
if we may judge by his reply to one who took some freedom with him. 
He was at first an apprentice to a statuary; and when he was reflected 
on as such by being called Prometheus, he replied, "I am, indeed, the 
inventor of new work, the model of which I owe to none : and if I do not 
execute it well, I deserve to be torn by twelve vultures, instead of one." 

If so, O Gulliver, dost thou not shudder at thy brother Lucian's 
vultures hovering over thee? Shudder on! They cannot shock thee 
more than decency has been shocked by thee. How have thy Houyhn- 
hunms thrown thy judgment from its seat, and laid thy imagination in the 
mire! In what ordure has thou dipped thy pencil! What a monster 
hast thou made of the 

— Human face divine! Milt. 

This writer has so satirized human nature as to give a demonstration 
in himself that it deserves to be satirized. "But," say his wholesale 
admirers, "few could so have written." True, and fewer would. If it 
required great abilities to commit the fault, greater still would have 
saved him from it. But whence arise such warm advocates for such a 
performance? From hence, namely: Before a character is established, 
merit makes fame; afterwards fame makes merit. Swift is not com- 
mended for this piece, but this piece for Swift. He has given us some 
beauties which deserve all our praise; and our comfort is, that his faults 
will not become common; for none can be guilty of them but who have 
wit as well as reputation to spare. His wit had been less wild, if his 
temper had not jostled his judgment. If his favorite Houyhnhunms 
could write, and Swift had been one of them, every horse with him 
would have been an ass, and he would have written a panegyric on 
mankind, saddling with much reproach the present heroes of his pen: 
on the contrary, being born amongst men, and, of consequence, piqued 
by many, and peevish at more, he has blasphemed a nature little lower 



60 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

than that of angels, and assumed by far higher than they. But surely 
the contempt of the world is not a greater virtue, than the contempt of 
mankind is a vice. Therefore I wonder that, though forborne by others, 
the laughter-loving Swift was not reproved by the venerable Dean, who 
could sometimes be very grave. 

For I remember, as I and others were taking with him an evenings' 
walk, about a mile out of Dublin, he stopped short: we passed on; 
but perceiving that he did not follow us, I went back and found him 
fixed as a statue and earnestly gazing upward at a noble elm which in 
its uppermost branches was much withered and decayed. Pointing at 
it he said, "I shall be like that tree: I shall die at top." As in this 
he seemed to prophecy like the Sybils; if, like one of them, he had burnt 
part of his works, especially this blasted branch of a noble genius, like 
her, too, he might have risen in his demand for the rest. 

Would not his friend Pope have succeeded better in an original 
attempt? Talents untried are talents unknown. All that I know is, 
that, contrary to these sentiments, he was not only an avowed professor 
of imitation, but a zealous recommender of it also. Nor could he 
recommend anything better, except emulation, to those who write. 
One of these all writers must call to their aid; but aids they are of unequal 
repute. Imitation is inferiority confessed, emulation is superiority con- 
tested or denied; imitation is servile, emulation, generous; that fetters, 
this fires; that may give a name, this a name immortal. This made 
Athens to succeeding ages the rule of taste and the standard of perfection. 
Her men of genius struck fire against each other; and kindled by conflict 
into glories no 14 time shall extinguish. We thank Aeschylus for Sopho- 
cles, and Parrhasius for Zeuxis, emulation for both. That bids us 
fly the general fault of imitators; bids us not be struck with the loud 
report of former fame as with a knell, which damps the spirits, but as 
with a trumpet, which inspires ardor to rival the renowned. Emulation 
exhorts us, instead of learning our discipline forever, like raw troops, 
under ancient leaders in composition, to put those laurelled veterans in 
some hazard of losing their superior posts in glory. 

Such is emulation's high-spirited advice, such her immortalizing call. 
Pope would not hear, pre-engaged with imitation, which blessed him 
with all her charms. He chose rather, with his namesake of Greece, 
to triumph in the old world, than to look out for a new. His taste 
partook the error of his religion, — it denied not worship to saints and 
angels; that is, to writers who, canonized for ages, have received their 

14 which no 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 61 

apotheosis from established and universal fame. True poesy, like true 
religion, abhors idolatry; and though it honors the memory of the exemp- 
lary, and takes them willingly (yet cautiously) as guides in the way to 
glory, real (though unexampled) excellence is its only aim; nor looks it 
for any inspiration less than divine. 

Though Pope's noble muse may boast her illustrious descent from 
Homer, Virgil, Horace, yet is an original author more nobly born. As 
Tacitus says of Curtius Rufus, an original author is born of himself, 
is his own progenitor, and will probably propagate a numerous offspring 
of imitators, to eternize his glory; while mule-like imitators die without 
issue. Therefore, though we stand much obliged for his giving us a 
Homer, yet had he doubled our obligation by giving us — a Pope. Had 
he a strong imagination and the true sublime? That granted, we might 
have had two Homers instead of one, if longer had been his life; for I 
heard the dying swan talk over an epic plan a few weeks before his 
decease. 

Bacon, under the shadow of whose great name I would shelter my 
present attempt in favor of originals, says, "Men seem not to know 
their own stock and abilities, but fancy their possessions to be greater, 
and their abilities less, than they really are." Which is, in effect, saying, 
that we ought to exert more than we do; and that, on exertion, our prob- 
ability of success is greater than we conceive. 

Nor have I Bacon's opinion only, but his assistance, too, on my side. 
His mighty mind travelled round the intellectual world, and, with a more 
than eagle's eye, saw and has pointed out blank spaces or dark spots in 
it, on which the human mind never shone: some of these have been 
enlightened since ; some are benighted still. 

Moreover, so boundless are the bold excursions of the human mind, 
that, in the vast void beyond real existence, it can call forth shadowy 
beings and unknown worlds, as numerous, as bright, and, perhaps as 
lasting, as the stars: such quite-original beauties we may call para- 
disaical, — 

Natos sine semine flores. Ovid. 

When such an ample area for renowned adventure in original attempts 
lies before us, shall we be as mere leaden pipes, conveying to the present 
age small streams of excellence from its grand reservoir in antiquity, 
and those, too, perhaps, mudded in the pass? Originals shine like 
comets, have no peer in their path, are rivalled by none, and the gaze of 
all. All other compositions, if they shine at all, shine in clusters, like 
the stars in the galaxy; where, like bad neighbors, all suffer from all 
each particular being diminished, and almost lost in the throng. 



62 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

If thoughts of this nature prevailed, — if ancients and moderns were 
no longer considered as masters and pupils, but as hard-matched rivals 
for renown, — then moderns, by the longevity of their labors, might one 
day become ancients themselves; and old Time, that best weigher of 
merits, to keep his balance even, might have the golden weight of an 
Augustan age in both his scales; or, rather, our scale might descend; 
and antiquity's (as a modern match for it strongly speaks) might kick 
the beam. 

And why not? for, consider, — since an impartial Providence scatters 
talents indifferently, as through all orders of persons, so through all 
periods of time; — since a marvellous light, unenjoyed of old, is poured 
on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our understanding, 
with brighter objects enriching our imagination, with an inestimable 
prize setting our passions on fire, thus strengthening every power that 
enables composition to shine; — since there has been no fall in man on this 
side Adam, who left no works, and the works of all other ancients are 
our auxiliars against themselves, as being perpetual spurs to our ambi- 
tion, and shining lamps in our path to fame; — since this world is a school, 
as well for intellectual as moral advance, and the longer human nature is 
at school, the better scholar it should be; — since, as the moral world 
expects its glorious millennium, the world intellectual may hope, by the 
rules of analogy, for some superior degrees of excellence to crown her 
later scenes; nor may it only hope, but must enjoy them too; for Tully, 
Quintilian, and all true critics allow, that virtue assists genius, and that 
the writer will be more able, when better is the man: — all these particu- 
lars, I say, considered, why should it seem altogether impossible that 
heaven's latest editions of the human mind may be the most correct 
and fair; that the day may come when the moderns may proudly look 
back on the comparative darkness of former ages, on the children of 
antiquity, reputing Homer and Demosthenes as the dawn of divine 
genius, and on Athens as the cradle of infant fame? What a glorious 
revolution would this make in the rolls of renown? 

" What a rant," say you, " is here !" I partly grant it: yet, consider, my 
friend, knowledge physical, mathematical, moral, and divine, increases; 
all arts and sciences are making considerable advance; with them, all 
the accommodations, ornaments, delights, and glories of human life; 
and these are new food to the genius of a polite writer; these are as 
the root, and composition as the flower; and as the root spreads and 
thrives, shall the flower fail? As well may a flower flourish when the 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 63 

root is dead. It is prudence to read, genius to relish, glory to surpass, 
ancient authors; and wisdom, to try our strength in an attempt in which 
it would be no great dishonor to fail. 

Why condemned Maro his admirable epic to the flames? Was it not 
because his discerning eye saw some length of perfection beyond it? 
And what he saw, may not others reach? And who bid fairer than our 
countrymen for that glory? Something new may be expected from 
Britons particularly; who seem not to be more severed from the rest of 
mankind by the surrounding sea, than by the current in their veins; 
and of whom little more appears to be required, in order to give us 
originals, than a consistency of character, and making their compositions 
of a piece with their lives. 

In 15 polite composition, in natural and mathematical knowledge, we 
have great originals already: Bacon, 16 Newton, Shakespeare, Milton, 
have showed us that all the winds cannot blow the British flag farther 
than an original spirit can convey the British fame. Their names go 
round the world; and what foreign genius strikes not as they pass? 
Why should not their posterity embark in the same bold bottom of new 
enterprise, and hope the same success? Hope it they may; or you must 
assert that either those originals which we already enjoy were written 
by angels, or deny that we are men. As Simonides said to Pausanias, 
reason should say to the writer, "Remember thou art a man." And 
for a man not to grasp at all which is laudable within his reach, is a 
dishonor to human nature, and a disobedience to the divine; for as heaven 
does nothing in vain, its gift of talents implies an injunction of their 
use. 

A friend of mine has obeyed that injunction: he has relied on himself, 
and with a genius, as well moral as original, (to speak in bold terms,) 
has cast out evil spirits; has made a convert to virtue of a species of 
composition once most its foe: as the first Christian emperors expelled 
demons and dedicated their temples to the living God. 

But you, I know, are sparing in your praise of this author: therefore 
I will speak of one which is sure of your applause. Shakespeare mingled 
no water with his wine, lowered his genius by no vapid imitation. 
Shakespeare gave us a Shakespeare, nor could the first in ancient fame 
have given us more. Shakespeare is not their son, but brother; their 
equal, and that in spite of all his faults. Think you this too bold? 

15 lives. May our genius shine, and proclaim us in that nobler view ! — minima 
contentos node Britannos. Virg. And so it does; for in 
u Boyle, 



64 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Consider, in those ancients, what is it the world admires? Not the 
fewness of their faults, but the number and brightness of their beauties; 
and if Shakespeare is their equal (as he doubtless is) in that which in 
them is admired, then is Shakespeare as great as they; and not impotence, 
but some other cause, must be charged with his defects. When we are 
setting these great men in competition, what but the comparative size 
of their genius is the subject of our inquiry? And a giant loses nothing 
of his size, though he should chance to trip in his race. But it is a com- 
pliment to those heroes of antiquity to suppose Shakespeare their equal 
only in dramatic powers; therefore, though his faults had been greater, 
the scale would still turn in his favor. There is at least as much genius 
on the British as on the Grecian stage, though the former is not swept 
so clean; so clean from violations not only of the dramatic, but moral rule; 
for an honest heathen, on reading some of our celebrated scenes, might 
be seriously concerned to see that our obligations to the religion of 
nature were cancelled by Christianity. 

Jonson, in the serious drama, is as much an imitator, as Shakespeare 
is an original. He was very learned, as Samson was very strong, to his 
own hurt. Blind to the nature of tragedy, he pulled down all antiquity 
on his head, and buried himself under it. We see nothing of Jonson, 
nor indeed of his admired (but also murdered) ancients; for what shone 
in the historian, is a cloud on the poet; and Cataline might have been a 
good play, if Sallust had never writ. 

Who knows if Shakespeare might not have thought less, if he had 
read more? Who knows if he might not have labored under the load of 
Jonson's learning, as Enceladus under Aetna? His mighty genius, 
indeed, through the most mountainous oppression would have breathed 
out some of his inextinguishable fire; yet, possibly, he might not have 
risen up into that giant, that much more than common man, at which we 
now gaze with amazement and delight. Perhaps he was as learned as 
his dramatic province required; for, whatever other learning he wanted, 
he was master of two books, unknown to many of the profoundly read, 
though books which the last conflagration alone can destroy, — the book 
of nature, and that of man. These he had by heart, and has transcribed 
many admirable pages of them into his immortal works. These are 
the fountain-head whence the Castalian streams of original composition 
flow; and these are often mudded by other waters, though waters, in 
their distinct channel, most wholesome and pure: as two chemical liquors, 
separately clear as crystal, grow foul by mixture and offend the sight. 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 65 

So that he had not only as much learning as his dramatic province 
required, but, perhaps, as it could safely bear. 17 

Dryden, destitute of Shakespeare's genius, had almost as much 
learning as Jonson, and, for the buskin, quite as little taste. He was a 
stranger to the pathos; and by numbers, expression, sentiment, and every 
other dramatic cheat, strove to make amends for it; as if a saint could 
make amends for the want of conscience, a soldier for the want of valor, 
or a vestal of modesty. The noble nature of tragedy disclaims an equiva- 
lent: like virtue, it demands the heart; and Dryden had none to give. 
Let epic poets think; the tragedian's point is rather to feel: such distant 
things are a tragedian and a poet, that the latter, indulged, destroys the 
former. Look on Barnwell and Essex, and see how, as to these distant 
characters, Dryden excels and is excelled. But the strongest demon- 
stration of his no-taste for the buskin are his tragedies fringed with 
rime; which, in epic poetry, is a sore disease, in the tragic, absolute 
death. To Dryden's enormity, Pope's was a light offence. As lacemen 
are foes to mourning, these two authors, rich in rime, were no great 
friends to those solemn ornaments which the nature of their works 
required. 

"Must rime, then," say you, "be banished?" I wish the nature of 
our language could bear its entire expulsion; but our lesser poetry stands 
in need of a toleration for it: it raises that, but it sinks 18 the great; as 
spangles adorn children, but expose men. Prince Henry bespangled all 
over in his eyelet-hole suit with glittering pins, and an Achilles, or an 
Almanzor, in this Gothic array, are very much on a level, as to the 
majesty of the poet and the prince. Dryden had a great, but a general, 
capacity; and as for a general genius, there is no such thing in nature. 
A genius implies the rays of the mind concentered, and determined to 
some particular point: when they are scattered widely, they act feebly 
and strike not with sufficient force to fire or dissolve the heart. As 
what comes from the writer's heart reaches ours; so what comes from his 
head sets our brains at work and our hearts at ease. It makes a circle 
of thoughtful critics, not of distressed patients; and a passive audience 
is what tragedy requires. Applause is not to be given, but extorted; 
and the silent lapse of a single tear does the writer more honor than the 
rattling thunder of a thousand hands. Applauding hands and dry eyes 
(which during Dryden's theatrical reign often met) are a satire on the 
writer's talent and the spectator's taste. When by such judges the 

17 bear. If Milton had spared some of his learning, his muse would have gained 
more glory than he would have lost by it. 

18 but sinks 



66 young's "conjectures on oeiginal composition" 

laurel is blindly given, and by such a poet proudly received, they resem- 
ble an intoxicated host and his tasteless guests over some sparkling 
adulteration, commending their champagne. But Dryden has his 
glory, though not on the stage. What an inimitable original is his ode! 
A small one, indeed, but of the first lustre, and without a flaw; and, amid 
the brightest boasts of antiquity, it may find a foil. 

Among the brightest of the moderns, Mr. Addison must take his 
place. Who does not approach his character with great respect? They 
who refuse to close with the public in his praise, refuse at their peril. 
But, if men will be fond of their own opinions, some hazard must be run. 
He had, what Dryden and Jonson wanted, a warm and feeling heart; 
but, being of a grave and bashful nature, through a philosophic reserve 
and a sort of moral prudery, he concealed it where he should have let 
loose all his fire, and have showed the most tender sensibilities of heart. 
At his celebrated "Cato" few tears are shed but Cato's own; which, 
indeed, are truly great, but unaffecting, except to the noble few who love 
their country better than themselves. The bulk of mankind want 
virtue enough to be touched by them. His strength of genius has 
reared up one glorious image, more lofty and truly golden than that in 
the plains of Dura, for cool admiration to gaze at, and warm patriotism 
(how rare!) to worship; while those two throbbing pulses of the drama, 
by which alone it is shown to live, terror and pity, neglected through the 
whole, leave our unmolested hearts at perfect peace. Thus the poet, 
like his hero, through mistaken excellence, and virtue overstrained, 
becomes a sort of suicide; and that which is most dramatic in the drama, 
dies. All his charms of poetry are but as funeral flowers, which adorn; 
all his noble sentiments but as rich spices, which embalm, the tragedy 
deceased. 

Of tragedy, pathos is not only the life and soul, but the soul inex- 
tinguishable: it charms us through a thousand faults. Decorations, 
which in this author abound, though they might immortalize other 
poesy, are the splendida peccata which damn the drama; while, on the 
contrary, the murder of all other beauties is a venial sin, nor plucks the 
laurel from the tragedian's brow. 19 

Socrates frequented the plays of Euripides; and what living Socrates 
would decline the theatre at the representation of Cato? Tully's 
assassins found him in his litter reading the Medea of the Grecian poet 
to prepare himself for death. Part of Cato might be read to the 

19 brow. Was it otherwise, Shakespeare himself would run some hazard of losing 
his crown. 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 67 

same end. In the weight and dignity of moral reflection, Addison 
resembles that poet who was called "the dramatic philosopher"; and 
is himself, as he says of Cato, "ambitiously sententious." But as to 
the singular talent, so remarkable in Euripides, at melting down hearts 
into the tender streams of grief and pity, there the resemblance fails. 
His beauties sparkle, but do not warm; they sparkle as stars in a frosty 
night. There is, indeed, a constellation in his play; there is the philoso- 
pher, patriot, orator, and poet; but where is the tragedian? And, if 
that is wanting, 

Cur in theatrum, Cato severe, venisti? Mart. 

And, when I recollect what passed between him and Dryden in 
relation to this drama, I must add the next line, — 
An ideo tantum veneras, ut exires? 
For, when Addison was a student at Oxford, he sent up his play to his 
friend Dryden, as a proper person to recommend it to the theatre, if it 
deserved it; who returned it with very great commendation, but with 
his opinion, that, on the stage, it could not meet with its deserved suc- 
cess. But though the performance was denied the theatre, it brought 
its author on the public stage of life. For persons in power inquiring 
soon after of the head of his college for a youth of parts, Addison was 
recommended, and readily received, by means of the great reputation 
which Dryden had just then spread of him above. 

There is this similitude between the poet and the play: as this is 
more fit for the closet than the stage, so that shone brighter in private 
conversation than on the public scene. They both had a sort of local 
excellency, as the heathen gods a local divinity; beyond such a bound 
they unadmired, and these unadored. This puts me in mind of Plato, 
who denied Homer to the public; that Homer which, when in his closet, 
was rarely out of his hand. Thus, though Cato is not calculated to 
signalize himself in the warm emotions of the theatre, yet we find him a 
most amiable companion in our calmer delights of recess. 

Notwithstanding what has been offered, this, in many views, is an 
exquisite piece. But there is so much more of art than nature in it, 
that I can scarce forbear calling it an exquisite piece of statuary, 
" Where the smooth chisel all its skill has shown, 
To soften into flesh the rugged stone." — Addison. 
That is, where art has taken great pains to labor undramatic matter 
into dramatic life; which is impossible. However, as it is, like Pygma- 
lion, we cannot but fall in love with it, and wish it was alive. How 
would a Shakespeare or an Otway have answered our wishes? They 



68 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

would have outdone Prometheus, and, with their heavenly fire, have 
given him not only life, but immortality. At their dramas (such is 
the force of nature) the poet is out of sight, quite hid behind his Venus, 
never thought of till the curtain falls. Art brings our Author forward, 
he stands before his piece; splendidly, indeed, but unfortunately; for 
the writer must be forgotten by his audience during the representation, 
if for ages he would be remembered by posterity. In the theatre, as in 
life, delusion is the charm; and we are undelighted the first moment we 
are undeceived. Such demonstration have we that the theatre is not 
yet opened in which solid happiness can be found by man ; because none 
are more than comparatively good; and folly has a corner in the heart 
of the wise. 

A genius fond of ornament should not be wedded to the tragic muse, 
which is in mourning: we want not to be diverted at an entertainment 
where our greatest pleasure arises from the depth of our concern. But 
whence (by the way) this odd generation of pleasure from pain? The 
movement of our melancholy passions is pleasant when we ourselves 
are safe; we love to be at once miserable and unhurt: so are we made; 
and so made, perhaps, to show us the Divine goodness; to show that 
none of our passions were designed to give us pain, except when being 
pained is for our advantage on the whole; which is evident from this 
instance, in which we see that passions the most painful administer 
greatly, sometimes, to our delight. 20 

To close our thoughts on Cato: he who sees not much beauty 
in it, has no taste for poetry; he who sees nothing else, has no taste for 
the stage. While it justifies censure, it extorts applause. It is much to 
be admired, but little to be felt. Had it not been a tragedy, it had been 
immortal; as it is a tragedy, its uncommon fate somewhat resembles his 
who, for conquering gloriously, was condemned to die. Both shone, 
but shone fatally; because in breach of their respective laws, the laws 
of the drama, and the laws of arms. But how rich in reptutation must 
that author be who can spare a Cato without feeling the loss ! 

That loss by our author would scarce be felt; it would be but dropping 
a single feather from a wing that mounts him above his contemporaries. 
He has a more refined, decent, judicious, and extensive genius than 
Pope or Swift. To distinguish this triumvirate from each other, and, 
like Newton, to discover the different colors in these genuine and merid- 
ian rays of literary light, Swift is a singular wit, Pope a correct poet, 

20 delight. Since great names have accounted otherwise for this particular, I 
wish this solution, though to me probable, may not prove a mistake. 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 69 

Addison a great author. Swift looked on wit as the jus divinum to 
dominion and sway in the world, and considered as usurpation all power 
that was lodged in persons of less sparkling understandings. This inclined 
him to tyranny in wit. Pope was somewhat of his opinion, but was for 
softening tyranny into lawful monarchy; yet were there some acts of 
severity in his reign. Addison's crown was elective: he reigned by the 
public voice: 

— Volentes 
Per populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo. Virg. 

But as good books are the medicine of the mind, if we should dethrone 
these authors and consider them not in their royal, but their medicinal 
capacity, might it not then be said — that Addison prescribed a wholesome 
and pleasant regimen which was universally relished and did much good; 
— that Pope preferred a purgative of satire which, though wholesome, 
was too painful in its operation — and that Swift insisted on a large 
dose of ipecacuanha, which, though readily swallowed from the fame 
of the physician, yet, if the patient had any delicacy of taste, he threw 
up the remedy instead of the disease? 

Addison wrote little in verse, much in sweet, elegant, Virgilian 
prose; so let me call it, since Longinus calls Herodotus most Homeric, 
and Thucydides is said to have formed his style on Pindar. Addison's 
compositions are built with the finest materials, in the taste of the 
ancients, and (to speak his own language) on truly classic ground; and 
though they are the delight of the present age, yet am I persuaded that 
they will receive more justice from posterity. I never read him but I 
am struck with such a disheartening idea of perfection, that I drop my 
pen. And, indeed, far superior writers should forget his compositions, 
if they would be greatly pleased with their own. 21 

But you say that you know his value already. — You know, indeed, 
the value of his writings, and close with the world in thinking them 
immortal; but I believe, you know not that his name would have de- 
served immortality though he had never written; and that by a better 

21 And yet, (perhaps you have not observed it,) what is the common language of 
the world, and even of his admirers, concerning him? They call him an elegant 
writer. That elegance which shines on the surface of his compositions, seems to 
dazzle their understanding, and render it a little blind to the depth of sentiment which 
lies beneath. Thus (hard fate!) he loses reputation with them by doubling his title 
to it. On subjects the most interesting and important, no author of his age has written 
with greater, I had almost said, with equal, weight. And they who commend him 
for his elegance, pay him a sort of compliment, by their abstemious praise, as they 
would pay to Lucretia, if they should commend her only for her beauty. 



70 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

title than pen can give. You know, too, that his life was amiable; but, 
perhaps, you are still to learn that his death was triumphant. That 
is a glory granted to very few; and the paternal hand of Providence, 
which sometimes snatches home its beloved children in a moment, 
must convince us that it is a glory of no great consequence to the dying 
individual; that, when it is granted, it is granted chiefly for the sake of 
the surviving world, which may profit by his pious example, to whom is 
indulged the strength and opportunity to make his virtue shine out 
brightest at the point of death. And here permit me to take notice 
that the world will probably profit more by a pious example of lay- 
extraction, than by one born of the church; the latter being usually 
taxed with an abatement of influence by the bulk of mankind: therefore, 
to smother a bright example of this superior good influence, may be 
reputed a sort of murder injurious to the living and unjust to the dead. 

Such an example have we in Addison; which, though hitherto sup- 
pressed, yet, when once known, is insuppressible, of a nature too rare, 
too striking to be forgotten. For, after a long and manly, but vain, 
struggle with his distemper, he dismissed his physicians, and with them 
all hopes of life. But with his hopes of life he dismissed not his concern 
for the living, but sent for a youth nearly related and finely accomplished, 
but 22 not above being the better for good impressions from a dying 
friend. He came; but, life now glimmering in the socket, the dying 
friend was silent. After a decent and proper pause, the youth said, 
"Dear sir, you sent for me: I believe and I hope that you have some 
commands; I shall hold them most sacred." May distant ages not 
only hear, but feel, the reply! Forcibly grasping the youth's hand, he 
softly said, "See in what peace a Christian can die!" He spoke with 
difficulty and soon expired. Through grace Divine, how great is man! 
Through Divine mercy, how stingless death! Who would not thus 
expire? 

What an inestimable legacy were those few dying words to the youth 
beloved! What a glorious supplement to his own valuable fragment 
on the truth of Christianity! What a full demonstration, that his 
fancy could not feign beyond what his virtue could reach! For when 
he would strike us most strongly with the grandeur of the Roman mag- 
nanimity, his dying hero is ennobled with this sublime sentiment: — 

While yet I live, let me not live in vain. Cato. 
But how much more sublime is that sentiment when realized in life; 
when dispelling the languors, and appeasing the pains of a last hour, 

22 yet 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 71 

and brightening with illustrious action the dark avenue and all-awful 
confines of an eternity! When his soul scarce animated his body, 
strong faith and ardent charity animated his soul into divine ambition of 
saving more than his own. It is for our honor and our advantage to 
hold him high in our esteem; for the better men are, the more they will 
admire him; and the more they admire him, the better will they be. 

By undrawing the long-closed curtain of his death-bed, have I 
not showed you a stranger in him whom you knew so well? Is not this 
of your favorite author, 

— Nota major imago? — Virg. 
His compositions are but a noble preface, the grand work is his death: 
that is a work which is read in heaven. How has it joined the final 
approbation of angels to the previous applause of men ! How gloriously 
has he opened a splendid path, through fame immortal, into eternal 
peace! How has he given religion to triumph amidst the ruins of his 
nature; and, stronger than death, risen higher in virtue when breathing 
his last! 

If all our men of genius had so breathed their last, — if all our men 
of genius^ like him, had been men of genius for eternals, — then had we 
never been pained by the report of a latter end — O, how unlike to this! 
But a little to balance our pain, let us consider that such reports as 
make us at once adore and tremble, are of use, when too many there are 
who must tremble before they will adore; and who convince us, to our 
shame, that the surest refuge of our endangered virtue is in the fears and 
terrors of the disingenuous human heart. 

"But reports," you say, "may be false," and you farther ask me, 
"If all reports were true, how came an anecdote of so much honor to 
human nature as mine to lie so long unknown? What inauspicious 
planet interposed to lay its lustre under so lasting and so surprising an 
eclipse?" 

The fact is indisputably true; nor are you to rely on me for the truth 
of it. My report is but a second edition; it was published before, though 
obscurely, and with a cloud before it. As clouds before the sun are 
often beautiful, so this of which I speak. How finely pathetic are those 
two lines which this so solemn and affecting scene inspired ! — 
"He taught us how to live; and, O, too high 
A price for knowledge, taught us how to die." Tickell. 
With truth wrapped in darkness, so sung our oracle to the public, but 
explained himself to me. He was present at his patron's death; and 
that account of it here given, he gave to me before his eyes were dry. 



72 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

By what means Addison taught us how to die, the poet left to be known 
by a late and less able hand; but one more zealous for his patron's glory: 
zealous and impotent, as the poor Egyptian who gathered a few splinters 
of a broken boat as a funeral-pile for the great Pompey, studious of 
doing honor to so renowned a name. Yet had not this poor plank 
(permit me here so to call this imperfect page) been thrown out, the 
chief article of his patron's glory would probably have been sunk for- 
ever, and late ages have received but a fragment of his fame : a fragment 
glorious indeed, for his genius how bright! But to commend him for 
composition, though immortal, is distraction now, if there our encomium 
ends; let us look farther to that concluding scene, which spoke human 
nature not unrelated to the Divine. To that let us pay the long and 
large arrear of our greatly posthumous applause. 

This you will think a long digression; and justly: if that may be 
called a digression, which was my chief inducement for writing at all. 
I had long wished to deliver up to the public this sacred deposit, which 
by Providence was lodged in my hands; and I entered on the present 
undertaking partly as an introduction to that which is more worthy 
to see the light; of which I gave an intimation in the beginning of my 
letter: for this is the monumental marble there mentioned, to which 
I promised to conduct you; this is the sepulchral lamp, the long hidden 
lustre of our accomplished countryman, who now rises, as from his 
tomb, to receive the regard so greatly due to the dignity of his death: 
a death to be distinguished by tears of joy; a death which angels beheld 
with delight. 

And shall that which would have shone conspicuous amid the re- 
splendent lights of Christianity's glorious morn, by these dark days be 
dropped into oblivion? Dropped it is; and dropped by our sacred, 
august, and ample register of renown, which has entered in its marble 
memoirs the dim splendor of far inferior worth. Though so lavish of 
praise, and so talkative of the dead, yet is it silent on a subject which 
(if any) might have taught its unlettered stones to speak. If powers 
were not wanting, a monument more durable than those of marble 
should proudly rise in this ambitious page, to the new and far nobler 
Addison than that which you and the public have so long and so much 
admired. Nor this nation only; for it is Europe's Addison, as well as 
ours; though Europe knows not half his title to her esteem; being as yet 
unconscious that the dying Addison far outshines her Addison immortal. 
Would we resemble him? Let us not limit our ambition to the least 
illustrious part of his character; heads, indeed, are crowned on earth; 



CONJECTURES ON ORIGINAL COMPOSITION 73 

but hearts only are crowded in heaven; a truth which, in such an age of 
authors, should not be forgotten. 

It is piously to be hoped that this narrative may have some effect, 
since all listen when a death-bed speaks; and regard the person departing 
as an actor of a part which the great Master of the drama has appointed 
us to perform to-morrow. This was a Roscius on the stage of life; his 
exit how great! Ye lovers of virtue, plaudite; and let us, my friend, 
ever "remember his end, as well as our own, that we may never do 
amiss." I am, 

Dear Sir, 

Your most obliged, 

humble servant. 

P.S. How far Addison is an original, you will see in my next; where 
I descend from this consecrated ground into his sublunary praise: and 
great is the descent, though into noble heights of intellectual power. 



APPENDIX I 

The Ideas Contained in the "Conjectures" Compared with their 
Parallels Found in Earlier Writings 

In any argument or discussion much of the final impression may 
depend upon the point of view. Such will be the case at least with the 
following compilation. A word of explanation by way of preface will 
therefore be in place. 

Nearly every passage in the Conjectures that is of literary significance 
is collated here with a limited number of similar statements made by 
Young himself or by others before he wrote his Conjectures. The simi- 
larity in question consists in resemblance or identity as to thought or 
terminology. In the first group of quotations, for example, Young's 
claim that he was writing on a new subject, on a subject on which he 
had not yet seen anything written, is compared with instances where he 
makes the same claim for his Night Thoughts and his True Estimate of 
Human Life, and with various instances where other authors make the 
same claim for their own or other works. Thus it is made obvious that 
it was common practice with Young and others before and during his 
days to recommend literary works by claiming originality for them. 
In the second group his precept that the pen ought to be employed 
above all in the "sacred interests of virtue, and real service of mankind" 
is compared with passages that anticipate it more or less strikingly. The 
third group of quotations, finally, was collated to show the remarkable 
resemblance in thought and terminology between the statements made by 
Young as to genius and originality and certain earlier ones made by other 
writers. And such parallel passages are quoted in a chronological, but 
retrogressive, order. Thus, a passage from the Conjectures is placed 
closest to those parallels which are most closely related to it as to time 
and contents. 

Out of regard for space and because this study is not meant as a 
complete history of the origin, development, and spread of each term 
and idea in question, the reader will find here only a certain portion of 
the evidence which I have gathered to show where and how Young 
repeats in his Conjectures either better or worse what had been said 
before by himself or others. The data here given will suffice, however, 
to show that almost everything that Young says in his treatise was 
available in quite a number of sources. They tend further to substantiate 
my view that Young employed his own precept when writing this essay. 



APPENDIX I 75 

According to this precept one should read everything that others have 
said on one's topic before proceeding to write. These data prove further- 
more that the Conjectures were not a new phenomenon in literary- 
criticism, and they indicate the sources from which they may have been 
derived, while it has been pointed out in a preceding chapter that Young 
had actually read many such writings as are quoted here. It is never- 
theless not to be denied that Young may have worked out many of his 
arguments and conclusions independently of all similar statements 
already in existence. Whoever wishes to see and judge for himself in 
this matter, will find the following compilation a convenient aid. 
Conjectures (p. 43) : I begin with original composition ; and the more will- 
ingly, as it seems an original subject to me, who have seen nothing hither- 
to written on it. 

1756: "I do not know whether my poem will have all the qualities requisite to satisfy 
a reader: but I dare flatter myself, that it will at least be allowed to have the grace 
of novelty." Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 206. 

1742: Why doubt me then, the glorious truth to sing, 

Though yet unsung, as deem'd perhaps too bold? 

Young, Vol. I, p. 59. 
1741 : I may be looked upon as an original in my way. 

Samuel Richardson, Oxf. Die, vid. Original. 

1728: The design [speaking of his "True Estimate of Human Life"] is of great conse- 
quence, and, I think, new. Young, Vol. II, p. 323. 

1711: My design in this paper is to consider what is properly a great genius, and to 
throw some thoughts together on so uncommon a subject. Spectator, No. 160. 

1695: I believe the subject [concerning Humor in Comedy] is entirely new, and was 
never touched upon before. 

William Congreve, Concerning Humor in Comedy, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 251. 

1685: 'Tis sufficient to observe that his [Lord Rochester's] poetry, like himself, was 
all original, and has a stamp so particular, so unlike anything that has been writ before, 
that, as it disclaimed all servile imitation and copying from others, so neither is it 
capable, in my opinion, of being copied, any more than the manner of his discourse 
could be copied. 

Robert Wolseley, Preface to Valentinian, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 8. 

1683: Of this treatise, I shall only add, 'tis an original. 

D. A. Art of Converse, Pref., Oxf. Die, vid. Original. 

1677-79 (?) Whom refin'd Etherege copies not at all, 
But is himself a sheer original. 

John Wilmot, An Allusion to Horace, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 283. 

1676: I hate imitation, to do anything like other people. All that know me do me 
the honor to say, I am an original. 

Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Oxf. Die, vid. Original. 



76 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Conjectures (p. 43) : Wit, indeed, however brilliant, should not be permitted 
to gaze self-enamoured on its useless charms, in that fountain fame, (if 
so I may call the press,) if beauty is all that it has to boast; but like the 
first Brutus, it should sacrifice its most darling offspring to the sacred 
interests of virtue, and real service of mankind. 

1744: He that writes popularly and well, does most good; and he that does most good, 
is the best author. Young, Vol. I, p. 7. 

1714: How empty learning, and how vain is art, 

But as it mends the life, and guides the heart! 

Young, Vol. I, p. 273. 

1712: Besides this great moral, which may be looked upon as the soul of the fable, 
there are an infinity of under-morals which are to be drawn from the several parts of 
the poem, and which makes this work more useful and instructive than any other poem 
in any language. Spectator, No. 369. 

1711: Thus beauty and truth are plainly joined with the notion of utility and con- 
venience, even in the apprehension of every ingenious artist, the architect, the statuary, 
or the painter, . . . What is beautiful is harmonious and proportionable; what is 
harmonious and proportionable is true; and what is at once both beautiful and true is, 
of consequence, agreeable and good. 

Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. II, pp. 268-69. 

250 ca. : Now as regards the manifestations of the sublime in literature, in which grandeur 
is never, as it sometimes is in nature, found apart from utility and advantage, it is 
fitting to observe, etc. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 135. 

Conjectures (p. 45) : But there are who write with vigor and success to the 
world's delight and their own renown. These are the glorious fruits 
where genius prevails. The mind of a man of genius is a fertile and 
pleasant field, pleasant as Elysium and fertile as Tempe; it enjoys a per- 
petual spring. Of that spring originals are the fairest flowers; imitations 
are of quicker growth, but fainter bloom. 

1715-25: Our author's [Homer's] work is a wild paradise where, if we cannot see all 
the beauties so distinctly as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of 
them is infinitely greater. It is like a copious nursery which contains the seeds and 
first productions of every kind out of which those who followed him have but selected 
some particular plants, each according to his fancy, to cultivate and beautify. If 
some things are too luxuriant, it is owing to the richness of the soil; and if others 
are not arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because they are over-run and op- 
prest by those of a stronger nature. Pope, Homer, Preface. 

1711: The genius in both these classes of authors may be equally great, but shows 
itself after a different manner. In the first it is like a rich soil in a happy climate, 
that produces a whole wilderness of noble plants, rising in a thousand beautiful land- 
scapes, without any certain order or regularity. In the other it is the same rich 
soil under the same happy climate, that has been laid out in walks and parterres, and 
cut into shape and beauty by the skill of the gardener. Addison, Sped. No. 160. 



APPENDIX I 77 

1711 : This the miscellaneous manner of writing, it must be owned, has happily effected. 
— From every field, from every hedge or hillock, we now gather as delicious fruits and 
fragrant flowers as of old from the richest and best cultivated gardens. 

Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. II, p. 158. 

1591: I presume to offer to your Highness the first fruit of the little garden of my 
slender skill. It hath been the longer in growing, and is less worthy the gathering, 
because my ground is barren and too cold for such dainty Italian fruits. 

John Harrington, Orlando Furioso, Introduction. 

Conjectures (p. 45) : Originals are, and ought to be, great favorites, for 
they are great benefactors; they extend the republic of letters, and add a 
new province to its dominion: 

1709: And forasmuch as this globe is not trodden upon by mere drudges of business 
only, but that men of spirit and genius are justly to be esteemed as considerable agents 
in it, etc. Steele, Tatler, No. I. 

1679: Bossu, the best of modern critics, answers thus in general: that all excellent 
arts, and particularly that of poetry, have been invented and brought to perfection 
by men of transcendant genius. Dryden, Preface to Troilus and Cressida. 

1620: Now the true and lawful goal of the sciences is none other than this: that human 
life be endowed with new discoveries and powers. 

Bacon, Novum Organum, Vol. I, LXXXI. 

Conjectures (p. 45) : The pen of an original writer, like Armida's wand, 
out of a barren waste calls a blooming spring. 

1754: Let these gentle hints, like the touch of a magic wand, make you shrink from 
your vernal bloom, and wither at least to the decencies of fourscore. 

Young, Vol. II, p. 451. 

Conjectures (p. 46) : But if an original, by being as excellent as new, adds 
admiration to surprise, then are we at the writer's mercy; on the strong 
wing of his imagaination we are snatched from Britain to Italy, from 
climate to climate, from pleasure to pleasure; we have no home, no 
thought of our own; till the magician drops his pen: and then falling 
down into ourselves, we awake to flat realities, lamenting the change, 
like the beggar who dreamt himself a prince. 

1756: Astonishment, as I have said, is the effect of the sublime in the highest degree; 
the inferior effects are admiration, reverence, and respect. 

Burke, Sublime and Beautiful, p. 130. 

1754: The world is worn out to us. — Where are its formerly sweet delusions, its airy 
castles, and glittering spires? — shall not the dissolved enchantment set the captive 
free? Young, Vol. II, p. 501. 

1753: The poet [Shakespeare] is a more powerful magician than his own Prospero: 
we are transported into fairyland; we are wrapt in a delicious dream, from which it is 
misery to be disturbed; all around is enchantment! The Adventurer, No. 93. 



78 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1739: 'Tis difficult for us to withold our assent from what is pointed out to us in all 
the colors of eloquence; and the vivacity produced by the fancy is in many cases greater 
than that which arises from custom and experience. We are hurried away by the 
lively imagination of our author or companion; and even he himself is often a victim 
to his own fire and genius. Hume, Treatise on Human Nature, p. 420. 

1715-25: It is to the strength of this amazing invention we are to attribute that 
unequaled fire and rapture, which is so forcible in Homer that no man of a true poetical 
spirit is master of himself while he reads him. What he writes is of the most animated 
nature imaginable: everything moves, everything lives, and is put in action; . . . the 
reader is hurried out of himself by the force of the poet's imagination and turns in one 
place to a hearer, and in another to a spectator. Pope, Preface to Homer. 

1712: Milton . . . concludes his description with a circumstance which is altogether 
new, and imagined with the greatest strength of fancy. Addison, Sped. No. 327. 

1712: . . . described with the utmost flights of human imagination. 

Addison, Spectator, No. 333. 

1712: If I were to name a poet that is a perfect master in all these arts of working on 
the imagination, I think Milton may pass for one. Spectator, No. 417. 

1712: In short, our souls are at present delightfully lost and bewildered in a pleasing 
delusion, and we walk about like the enchanted hero of a romance, who sees beau- 
tiful castles, woods, and meadows; and at the same time hears the warbling of birds 
and the purling of streams; but upon the finishing of some secret spell, the fantastic 
scene breaks up, and the disconsolate knight finds himself on a barren heath, or in a 
solitary desert. Addison, Sped. No. 413. 

1674: Imagining is, in itself, the very height and life of poetry. It is, as Longinus 
describes it, a discourse which, by a kind of enthusiasm, or extraordinary emotion of 
the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet paints, so as 
to be pleased with them, and to admire them. 

Dryden, The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Poetic License, p. 186. 

250 ca.: Images, moreover, contribute greatly, my young friend, to dignity, elevation, 
and power as a pleader. In this sense some call them mental representations. In 
a general way the name of image or imagination is applied to every idea of the mind, in 
whatsoever form it presents itself, which gives birth to speech. But at the present 
day the word is predominantly used in cases where, carried away by enthusiasm and 
passion, you think you see what you describe, and you place it before the eyes of your 
hearers. Further, you will be aware of the fact that an image has one purpose with 
the orators and another with the poets, and that the design of the poetical image is 
enthrallment, of the rhetorical-vivid description. Both, however, seek to stir the pas- 
sions and the emotions. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 85. 

Conjectures (p. 47) : So few are our originals, that, if all other books were 
to be burnt, the lettered world would resemble some metropolis in 
flames, where a few incombustible buildings, a fortress, temple, or tower, 
lift their heads, in melancholy grandeur, amid the mighty ruin. 

1753: The number of original writers, of writers who discover any traces of native 
thought, or views of new expression, is found to be extremely small, in every branch 



APPENDIX I 79 

of literature. Few possess ability or courage to think for themselves, to trust to their 
own powers, to rely on their own stock; and, therefore, the generality creeps tamely 
and cautiously in the track of their predecessors. The quintessence of the largest 
libraries might be reduced to the compass of a few volumes, if all the useless repetitions, 
and acknowledged truths were to be omitted in this process of chemical criticism. 
A learned Frenchman informs us, that he intended to compile a treatise wepl rwv An-af 
clprjukvuv, "concerning thing3 which had been said but once," which I fancy would 
have been contained in a small pamphlet. The Adventurer, No. 63. 

Conjectures (p. 48): "Must we then," you say, "not imitate ancient 
authors?" Imitate them, by all means; but imitate aright. He that 
imitates the divine Iliad does not imitate Homer; but he who takes the 
same method which Homer took for arriving at a capacity of accomplish- 
ing a work so great. 

1729: No man can be like Pindar by imitating any of his particular works, any more 
than like Raphael by copying the Cartoons. The genius and spirit of such great men 
must be collected from the whole; and when thus we are possessed of it, we must exert 
its energy in subjects and designs of our own. Nothing is so un-Pindarical as following 
Pindar on foot. Pindar is an original; and he must be so, too, who would be like Pindar 
in that which is his greatest praise. Nothing so unlike as a close copy and a noble 
original. Young, Vol. II, p. 2. 

1728: And we should rather imitate the example of the ancients in the general motives 
and fundamental methods of their working, than in their works themselves. This is a 
distinction, I think, not hitherto made, and a distinction of consequence. For the 
first may make us their equals; the second must pronounce us their inferiors even in 
our utmost success. Young, Vol. I, p. 418. 

1693: I take imitation of an author, in their [Durham's and Cowley's] sense, to be 
an endeavor of a later poet to write like one who has written before him, on the same 
subject; that is, not to translate his words, or to be confined to his sense, but only to 
set him as a pattern, and to write, as he supposes that author would have done, had 
he lived in our age, and in our country. 

Dryden, Preface to the Translation of Ovid's Epistles, p. 239. 

250 ca. : Accordingly it is well that we ourselves also, when elaborating anything which 
requires lofty expression and elevated conception, should shape some idea in our minds 
as to how perchance Homer would have said this very thing, or how it would have 
been raised to the sublime by Plato or Demosthenes or by the historian Thucydides. 
For those personages, presenting themselves to us and inflaming our ardor and as it 
were illuminating our path, will carry our minds in a mysterious way to the high 
standards of sublimity which are imaged within us. Still more effectual will it be to 
suggest this question to our thoughts, 'What sort of hearing would Homer, had he 
been present, or Demosthenes have given to this or that, when said by me, or how would 
they have been affected by the other?' Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 83. 

Conjectures (p. 48): All eminence, and distinction, lies out of the beaten 
road; excursion and deviation are necessary to find it; if like poor Gulliver 
. . . you fall not into a ditch in your way to glory. 



80 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1728: It holds true in the province of writing, as in war, "The more danger, the more 
honor." It must be very enterprising, it must, in Shakespeare's style, have "hair- 
breadth 'scapes" and often tread the very brink of error. Young, Vol. I, p. 416. 

Conjectures (p. 49) : Genius is a master-workman, learning is but an 
instrument; — for what, for the most part, mean we by genius, but the 
power of accomplishing great things without the means generally reputed 
necessary to that end? A genius differs from a good understanding, as a 
magician from a good architect; that raises his structure by means 
invisible; this by the skilful use of common tools. Hence genius has 
ever been supposed to partake of something divine. Nemo unquam vir 
magnus fuit, sine aliquo afflatu divino. 

1730: For A his magic pen evokes an O, 

And turns the tide of Europe on the foe. 

Young, Vol. II, p. 36. 

1712: But when we are in the Metamorphoses, we are walking on enchanted ground, 
and see nothing but scenes of magic lying round us. Addison, Sped. No. 417. 

1711: Tis remarkable that in the politest of all nations the writings looked upon as 
most sacred were those of their great poets, whose works, indeed, were truly divine 
in respect of art and the perfection of their frame and composition. — Even the philoso- 
phers who criticised them with most security were not their least admirers, when 
they ascribed to them that divine inspiration or sublime enthusiasm. 

Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. II, pp. 298 f. 

1690: From this ["a certain noble and vital heat of temper— that celestial fire"] 
arises that elevation of genius which can never be produced by any art or study, by 
pains or by industry, which cannot be taught by precepts or examples, and therefore 
is agreed by all to be the pure and free gift of heaven or of nature; and to be a fire 
kindled out of some hidden spark of the very first conception. 

Sir William Temple, Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 80. 

1675: I pitch upon one faculty first which, nor more by chance than inclination, falls 
out to that of the poet's, a science certainly of all others the most noble and exalted, 
and not unworthily termed divine, since the hight of poetical rapture hath ever been 
accounted little less than divine inspiration. 

Edward Phillips, Thcatrum Poetarum, Preface. 

1655: Those crude and rude orators of the old time . . . were wont to say: Deum 
tunc affuisse: that is that God assisted them. Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 187. 

1655: So much for the first kind of inspired poets, whom Scaliger doth call 0«o- 
irvtiiaos. Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 205. 

Conjectures (p. 49 f .) : Learning, destitute of this superior aid, is fond and 
proud of what has cost it much pains; it is a great lover of rules, and 
boaster of famed examples: As beauties less perfect, who owe half their 
charms to cautious art, learning inveighs against natural unstudied 



APPENDIX I 81 

graces, and small harmless indecorums, and sets rigid bounds to that 
liberty to which genius often owes its supreme glory. 

1754: Few poets appear to have composed with greater rapidity than Spenser. Hur- 
ried away by the impetuosity of imagination, he frequently cannot find time to attend 
to the niceties of construction; ... A review of these faults, which flow, perhaps, from 
that cause which produces his greatest beauties, will tend to explain many passages 
in particular, and to bring us acquainted with his manner in general. 

Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, p. 312. 

1754: But it is absurd to think of judging either Ariosto or Spenser by precepts which 
they did not attend to. We who live in the days of writing by rule, are apt to try 
every composition by those laws which we have been taught to think the sole criterion 
of excellence. . . . Spenser, and the same may be said of Ariosto, did not live in an age 
of planning. His poetry is the careless exuberance of a warm imagination and a 
strong sensibility. It was his business to engage the fancy, and to interest the atten- 
tion by bold and striking images, in the formation and disposition of which little 
labor or art was applied. The various and the marvelous were the chief sources of 
delight. Hence we find our author ransacking alike the regions of reality and romance, 
of truth and fiction, to find the proper decoration and furniture for his fairy structure. 
Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. T, pp. 21 f. 

1754: A poetry succeeded, in which imagination gave way to correctness, sublimity of 
description, to delicacy of sentiment, and majestic imagery to conceit and epigram. 
Poets began now to be more attentive to words than to things and objects. The 
nicer beauties of happy expression were preferred to the daring strokes of great concep- 
tion. Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. II, pp. 105 f. 

1728: And, indeed, this may be said in general, — that great subjects are above being 
nice; that dignity and spirit ever suffer from scrupulous exactness; and that the min- 
uter cares effeminate a composition. Great masters of poetry, painting, and statuary, 
in their nobler works, have even affected the contrary; and justly; for a truly mascu- 
line air partakes more of the negligent than of the neat, both in writings and in life: 
Grandis oratio haberet majestalis suae pondus. A poem like a criminal, under too 
severe correction, may lose all its spirit and expire. Young, Vol. I, p. 419. 

1727: It is not unlikely, it may be expected, that in an introduction to a collection of 
poems of a various kind ... I should say something of the maxims and rules, in general, 
of poetry. . . . All the ancients, or the moderns copying after them, have written on this 
scheme, is no more than a set of very obvious thoughts and observations, which every 
man of good sense naturally knows without being taught, and which never made a 
good poet, nor mended a bad one. . . . Those observations or rules were primarily 
formed upon and designed to serve only as comments to the works of certain great 
authors, who composed those works without any such help; the mighty originals 
from whence they were drawn were produced without them; and unluckily for all rules, 
it has commonly happened since, that those writers have succeeded the worst who have 
pretended to have been most assisted by them. 

Leonard Welsted, A Dissertation, p. 16. 

1712: If we consider the works of nature and art, as they are qualified to entertain 
the imagination, we shall find the last very defective, in comparison of the former. 



82 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

. . . There is something more bold and masterly in the rough, careless strokes of 
nature than in the nice touches and embellishments of art. 

Addison, Sped. No. 414. 

1712: There is sometimes a greater judgment shown in deviating from the rules of 
art than in adhering to them; and . . . there is more beauty in the works of a great 
genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius who not 
only knows, but scrupulously observes them. Addison, Sped. No. 592. 

1711: There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in these great natural 
geniuses that is infinitely more beautiful than all the turn and polishing of what the 
French call a bel esprit, by which they would express a genius refined by conversation, 
reflection, and the reading of the most polite authors. Addison, Sped. No. 160. 

1711: Some beauties yet no precepts can declare. 



Music resembles poetry; in each 

Are nameless graces which no methods teach, 

And which a master hand alone can reach. 



Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, 
And rise to faults true critics dare not mend; 
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, 
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art, 
Which, without passing through the judgment, gains 
The heart, and all its end at once attains. 

Pope, Essay on Criticism, p. 42 f. 

1690: After all, the utmost that can be achieved or, I think, pretended by any rules 
in this art is but to hinder some men from being very ill poets, but not to make any 
man a very good one. 

Sir William Temple, Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 84. 

1688: What a prodigious difference there is between a work that is beautiful and one 
that is merely regular and without faults! . . . It is easier for a great genius to attain 
sublimity and grandeur than to avoid every trifling fault. . . . When the reading 
of a book elevates the mind, and inspires brave and noble sentiments, seek no other 
rule by which to judge it; it is good, and made by the hand of a true workman. 

La Bruyere, Caraderes Des Ouvrages de I'Esprit, Spingarn, Intro., p. XCVIII. 

Conjectures (p. 50) : Rules, like crutches, are a needful aid to the lame, 
though an impediment to the strong. A Homer casts them away; and 
like his Achilles, Jura negat sibi nata, nihil non arrogat, by native force 
of mind. 

1754: Spenser's native force of invention would not suffer him to pursue the letter 
of a prescribed fiction with scrupulous observation and servile regularity. 

Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, p. 93. 

1698: Elegance of thought is what we commonly call wit, which adds to propriety, 
beauty, and pleases our fancy, while propriety entertains our judgment. This depends 
so much on genius, that 'tis impossible to teach it by rules. ... to attend to a great 



APPENDIX I 83 

many rules whilst you are writing, is the way to make your style stiff and constrained, 
whereas elegance consists very much in a genteel ease and freedom of expression. 

John Hughes, Style, Vol. 1, p. 251. 

Conjectures (p. 50): There is something in poetry beyond prose-reason; 
there are mysteries in it not to be explained, but admired. 

1739: Besides all these qualities which render a person lovely or valuable, there is also 
a certain je-ne-sais-quoi of agreeable and handsome, that concurs to the same effect. 
In this case, as in that of wit and eloquence, we must have recourse to a certain sense, 
which acts without reflexion, and regards not the tendencies of qualities and charac- 
ters. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, p. 366. 

Conjectures (p. 50) : Genius often then deserves most to be praised when 
it is most sure to be condemned; that, when its excellence, from mounting 
high, to weak eyes is quite out of sight. 

1712: The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very 
often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for 
polite learning; and they are these which a sour, undistinguishing critic generally 
attacks with the greatest violence. Addison, Sped. No. 291. 

Conjectures (p. 50) : Genius, therefore, leaves but the second place, among 
men of letters, to the learned. It is their merit and ambition to fling 
light on the works of genius, and point out its charms. 

1714: The ancient critics are full of the praises of their contemporaries; they dis- 
cover beauties which escaped the observation of the vulgar, and very often find out 
reasons for palliating and excusing such little slips and oversights as were committed 
in the writings of eminent authors. Addison, Sped. No. 592. 

1711: Survey the whole, nor seek slight faults to find 

Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind. 

Pope, Essay on Criticism, p. 48 f. 

1701: Imperfect, partial, prejudiced critics have judgment enough to discover faults, 
but want discernment to find out beauties . . . your lordship easily found that he had 
beauties which overweighed all faults. 

John Dennis, Advancement and Reformation of Modem Poetry, preface. 

1693: 111 writers are usually the sharpest censors; for they, as the best poet and the 
best patron said, 

When in the full perfecton of decay, 

Turn vinegar, and come again in play. 
Thus the corruption of a poet is the generation of a critic; I mean of a critic in the 
general acceptation of this age; for formerly they were quite another species of men. 
They were defenders of poets, and commentators on their works; to illustrate obscure 
beauties; to place some passages in a better light; to redeem others from malicious 
interpretations; to help out an author's modesty, who is not ostentatious of his wit; 
and in short, to shield him, etc. . . . Are our auxiliary forces turned our enemies? 
... or, to speak in the most honorable terms of them, are they, from our seconds, 
become principals against us? 

Dryden, Dedication to Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. 



84 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1674: In the first place, I must take leave to tell them, that they wholly mistake the 
nature of criticism who think its business is principally to find fault. Criticism, as it 
was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant a standard of judging well; the chiefest 
part of which is to observe those excellencies which should delight a reasonable reader. 
If the design, the conduct, the thoughts, and the expressions of a poem, be generally 
such as proceed from a true genius of poetry, the critic ought to pass his judgment in 
favor of the author. 'Tis malicious and unmanly to snarl at the little lapses of a pen, 
from which Virgil himself stands not exempted. Horace acknowledges, that honest 
Homer nods sometimes. . . . And Longinus, who was undoubtedly, after Aristotle, 
the greatest critic amongst the Greeks, in his twenty seventh chapter wepl 'T\f/ovs, 
has judiciously preferred the sublime genius that sometimes errs, to the meddling 01 
indifferent one, which makes a few faults, but seldom or never rises to any excellence. 
Dryden, The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Poetic License, pp. 179 f. 

Conjectures (p. 50) : A star of the first magnitude among the moderns was 
Shakespeare; among the ancients, Pindar; who (as Vossius tells us) 
boasted of his no-learning, calling himself the eagle, for his flight above it. 
And such genii as these may indeed have much reliance on their own 
native powers. For genius may be compared to the body's natural 
strength, learning to the super-induced accoutrements of arms: if the 
first is equal to the proposed exploit, the latter rather encumbers, than 
assists; rather retards than promotes, the victory. 

1752: With respect to the productions of imagination and wit, a mere determination 
of the will is not sufficient; there must be a disposition of the mind which no human 
being can procure, or the work will have the appearance of a forced plant, in the pro- 
duction of which the industry of art has been substituted for the vigor of nature. 

The Adventurer, No. 2. 

1721: Shakespeare was one of the greatest geniuses that the world ever saw for the 
tragic stage. Though he lay under greater disadvantages than any of his successors, 
yet had he greater and more genuine beauties than the best and greatest of them. 
And what makes the brightest glory of his character, those beauties were entirely 
his own, and owing to the force of his own nature; whereas his faults were owing to his 
education, and to the age that he lived in. Dennis, Letters, Vol. II, p. 371. 

1712: Among the English, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That 
noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified 
him to touch this weak superstitious part of his reader's imagination; and made him 
capable of succeeding, where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his 
own genius. Addison, Sped. No. 419. 

1693: I confess, there are some men's constitutions of body and mind so vigorous, 
and well framed by nature, that they need not much assistance from others; but by the 
strength of their natural genius, they are, from their cradles, carried towards what is 
excellent; and, by the privilege of their happy constitutions, are able to do wonders. 
Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. IX, p. 6. 

1690: But after all, I do not know whether the higher flights of wit and knowledge, 
like those of power and of empire in the world, may not have been made by the pure 



APPENDIX I 85 

native force of spirit or genius in some single men, rather than by any derived strength 
among them, however increased by succession, and whether they might not have been 
the achievements of nature, rather than the improvements of art. 

Sir William Temple, On Ancient and Modern Learning. 

Conjectures (p. 50 f.) : Sacer nobis inestdeus, says Seneca. With regard to 
the moral world, conscience, with regard to the intellectual, genius is 
that god within. 

1742-45: Who conscience sent, her sentence will support, 
And God above assert that God in man. 

Young, Vol. I, p. 181. 

1655: But if a man will make an observation upon words and language, he might 
further observe that heathens did not only use the word ardor to express their heat in 
this kind; but even the word spirit. So Ovid; At Sacri vates, etc. Sedibus aetheriis 
spiritus ille venit. And again: Sic ubi mota calent sacro mea pectora thyrso; altior 
humano spiritus ille malo est. And this spirit is no less than a very God unto him, 
elsewhere, Est Deus in nobis, etc., as afterwards, in its proper place, out of him, or 
some other of greater authority than he, shall be declared. But we give it place 
here, because this ardor, heat or spirit, that possesseth orators and poets, yea soldiers 
and others, was by divers heathens deemed but one and the same, in its nature though 
working so differently, as hereafter shall be showed. Now on the other side, that 
ardor mentis is sometimes used by Christian writers for spiritus sanctus, is observable 
too. Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 65. 

1634 (?): Which doth confirm me in my first opinion, that every author has his own 
genius, directing him by a secret inspiration to that wherein he may most excel. 

Sir William Alexander, Anacrisis, ed. Spingarn, p. 185. 

Conjectures (p. 51) : Of genius there are two species, an earlier, and a later; 
or call them infantine, and adult. An adult genius comes out of nature's 
hand, as Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth, and mature: Shakes- 
peare's genius was of this kind: on the contrary, Swift stumbled at the 
threshold, and set out for distinction on feeble knees: his was an infantine 
genius; a genius which, like other infants, must be nursed and educated, 
or it will come to nought. Learning is its nurse and tutor. 

1756: Different geniuses unfold themselves at different periods of life. In some minds 
the ore is a long time in ripening. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 76. 

1711: This second class of great geniuses are those that have formed themselves 
by rules, and submitted the greatness of their natural talents to the corrections and 
restraints of art. Addison, Sped. No. 160. 

1690: But though invention be the mother of poetry, yet. this child is, like all others, 
born naked, and must be nourished with care, clothed with exactness and elegance, 
educated with industry, instructed with art, improved by application, corrected with 
severity, and accomplished with labor and with time, before it arrives at any great per- 
fection or growth. Sir William Temple, Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 80. 



86 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

Conjectures (p. 52): Genius is from heaven, learning from man: This sets 
us above the low and illiterate; that, above the learned, and polite. 
Learning is borrowed knowledge; genius is knowledge innate, and quite 
our own. Therefore, as Bacon observes, it may take a nobler name, and 
be called wisdom; in which sense of wisdom, some are born wise. 

1712: It is one of the great beauties of poetry to make hard things intelligible, and to 
deliver what is abstruse of itself in such easy language as may be understood by ordi- 
nary readers: besides, that the knowledge of a poet should rather seem born with him, 
or inspired, than drawn from books and systems. Addison, Sped. No. 297. 

1712: It would be in vain to inquire whether the power of imagining things strongly 
proceeds from any greater perfection in the soul, or from any nicer texture in the 
brain, of one man than of another. But this is certain that a noble writer should 
be born with this faculty in its full strength and vigor. Addison, Sped. No. 471. 

1694: Our age was cultivated thus at length; 

But what we gained in skill we lost in strength. 
Our builders were with want of genius curst, 



Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, 
But genius must be born, and never can be taught. 

John Dryden, To Congreve, On the Double Dealer. 

1655: But Aristides on the other side, . . . who fancied Gods in every dream, and 
tells us of so many wonderful cures by nocturnal sights and revelations: he not only 
of himself particularly, in his irepi tQ> Trapa<f>deytia.T^ speaks very positively and 
peremptorily, as inspired by God, in his orations; but of rhetoric in general, in his 
/. contra Plalonem, as positively and confidently maintaineth, not only that it is the 
gift of God, . . . but also, if right and excellent, that it comes by immediate inspira- 
tion, as oracles and prophecies; without study or learning, or so much as nature. 

Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 143. 

1655: He [Julius Caesar Scaliger] delivers it at first as out of Plato and Aristotle, that 
some are born poets; by nature, without art or study, endowed with all parts and 
faculties necessary to that profession. Others, though born simple and ignorant, 
yea dull and stupid, to become poets by immediate inspiration. As for matter of 
inspiration, it is Plato's doctrine, I confess, in more than one place; but disputed and 
maintained at large in a peculiar dialogue, inscribed by him Ion, i) irepi 'IXi&Sos 
where he doth only dispute that all true poetry is by immediate inspiration; immediate 
divine inspiration, in the most proper and literal sense; using all the words that the 
Greek tongue can afford, to express inspiration, and repeating them often: ... So 
that Plato, nay God himself, he saith, would not have us doubt but that it is. 

Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 201 

1605: This excellent liquor of knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration, 
or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it were not 
preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed, as universities, 
colleges, and schools for the receipt and comforting of the same. 

Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, p. 77. 



APPENDIX I 87 

Conjectures (p. 52): In the fairyland of fancy genius may wander wild; 
there it has a creative power, and may reign arbitrarily over its own 
empire of chimeras. The wide field of nature also lies open before it, 
where it may range unconfined, make what discoveries it can, and 
sport with its infinite objects uncontrolled, as far as visible nature extends, 
painting them as wantonly as it will: But what painter of the most 
unbounded and exalted genius can give us the true portrait of a seraph? 
He can give us only what by his own or others' eyes has been seen; 
though that indeed infinitely compounded, raised, burlesqued, dis- 
honored, or adorned: In like manner, who can give us divine truth 
unrevealed? Much less should any presume to set aside divine truth 
when revealed, as incongruous to their own sagacities. 

1756: It has been the lot of many great names, not to have been able to express them- 
selves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of verse, in their respective languages, 
who have yet manifested the force, fertility, and creative power of a most poetic 
genius in prose. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, pp. 265 f . 

1756: We do not, it would seem, sufficiently attend to the difference there is betwixt 
a man of wit, as a man of sense, and a true poet. ... a clear head, and acute under- 
standing, are not sufficient alone, to make a poet; ... it is a creative and glowing 
imagination, "acer spiritus ac vis," and that alone, that can stamp a writer with this 
exalted and very uncommon character, which so few possess, and of which so few can 
properly judge. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, Dedication. 

1756: The "man of rimes" may be easily found; but the genuine poet, of a lively 
plastic imagination, the true maker or creator, is so uncommon a prodigy, that one is 
almost tempted to the opinion of Sir William Temple, when he says, "of all the num- 
bers of mankind that live within the compass of a thousand years, for one man that is 
born capable of making a great poet, there may be a thousand born capable of making 
as great generals, or ministers of state, as the most renowned in story." 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the genius and Writings of Pope, pp. 108 f. 

1754: The author of the Arte of English Poesy generally uses maker for poet, iron)TT)s, 
and if we believe Sir J. Harrington, it was that author who first brought this expression, 
the significance of which is much commended by Sir P. Sidney, and Jonson, into fashion 
about the age of Queen Elizabeth. "Nor to dispute how high and supernatural the 
name of Maker is, so christened in English, by that unknown godfather that this 
last year, save one, viz. 1589, set forth a book called the Arte of English Poesy." His 
name is Puttenham. 

Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. II, p. 63. 

1754: If there be any poem whose graces please, because they are situated beyond 
the reach of art, and where the force of faculties of creative imagination delight, 
because they are unassisted and unrestrained by those of deliberate judgment, it is 
this. In reading Spenser, if the critic is not satisfied, yet the reader is transported. 
Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, pp. 23 f. 



88 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1753: It is the peculiar privilege of poetry, . . . to give life and motion to immaterial 
beings, and form and color, and action, even to abstract ideas. . . . Prosopopoeia, 
therefore, or personification, conducted with dignity and propriety, may be justly 
esteemed one of the greatest efforts of the creative power of a warm and lively imagina- 
tion. The Adventurer, No. 57. 

1753: A few observations on the writings of Shakespeare will not be deemed useless or 
unentertaining, because he exhibits more numerous examples of excellencies and 
faults, of every kind, than are perhaps to be discovered in any other author, ... his 
characteristical excellencies may possibly be reduced to three general heads : his lively 
creative imagination; his strokes of nature and passion; and his preservation of the 
consistency of his characters. ... Of all the plays of Shakespeare the Tempest is 
the most striking instance of his creative power. He has there given the reins of his 
boundless imagination, and has carried the romantic, the wonderful, and the wild, to 
the most pleasing extravagance. The Adventurer, No. 93. 

1753: The description of Eden in the fourth book of Paradise Lost, and the battle of 
the angels in the sixth, are usually selected as the most striking examples of a florid 
and vigorous imagination: . . . the following passage in the Revelations afforded him 
a hint from which his creative fancy might have worked up a striking picture. 

The Adventurer, No. 101. 

1742-45: Fairy field of fiction. Young, Vol. I, p. 68. 

1742-45: The visionary mind with gay chimeras, Young, Vol. I, p. 153. 

1740: Nommez-moi un esprit createur sur votre Parnasse; c'est a. dire nommez-moi 
un poete allemand qui ait tire de son propre fond un ouvrage de quelque reputation. 
Eleazar Mauvillon, Letters Francaise et Germaniques, (London, 1740), p. 363. 

1727: . . . What we need is the genius to create in our highly perfected language. 
Leonard Welsted, The Perfection of the English Language, p. 12. 

1715-26: Homer is universally allowed to have had the greatest invention of any 
writer whatever, . . . nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged the greatest 
of poets, who most excelled in that which is the very foundation of poetry. It is the 
invention that in different degrees distinguishes all great geniuses: the utmost stretch 
of human study, learning, and industry, which masters everything besides, can never 
attain to this. It furnishes art with all the materials, and without it judgment itself 
can at best but steal but wisely; for art is only like a prudent steward that lives on man- 
aging the riches of nature. Whatever praises may be given to works of judgment, 
there is not even a single beauty in them to which the invention must not contribute: 
as in the most regular gardens, art can only reduce the beauties of nature to more 
regularity, and such a figure which the common eye may better take in, and is there- 
fore more entertained with. And perhaps the reason why common critics are inclined 
to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one, is because 
they find it easier for themselves to pursue their observations through a uniform and 
bounded walk of art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of nature. 

Pope, Homer, Preface. 

1712: Claudian . . . has given full scope to that wildness of imagination which was 
natural to him. Addison, Spec. No. 333. 



APPENDIX I 89 

1712: It is this sense [sight] which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that 
by the pleasures of the imagination or fancy (which I shall use promiscuously) I 
here mean such as arise from visible objects, either when we have them actually in 
our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings, statues, descrip- 
tions, or any the like occasion. We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy 
that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power 
of retaining, altering and compounding those images which we have once re- 
ceived into all the varieties of picture and vision that are the most agreeable to the 
imagination; for by this faculty a man in a dungeon is capable of entertaining himself 
with scenes and landscapes more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole 
compass of nature. Addison, Sped. No. 411. 

1712: It is in the power of the imagination, when it is once stocked with particular 
ideas, to enlarge, compound, and vary them at her own pleasure. 

Addison, Sped. No. 416. 

1712: It is this talent of affecting the imagination, that gives an embellishment to 
good sense, and makes one man's compositions more agreeable than another's. It 
sets off all writings in general, but is the very life and highest perfection of poetry. 
... It has something in it like creation; it bestows a kind of existence, and draws 
up to the reader's view several objects which are not to be found in being. It makes 
additions to nature, and gives a greater variety to God's works. In a word, it is able to 
beautify and adorn the most illustrious scenes in the universe, or to fill the mind with 
more glorious shows and apparitions than can be found in any part of it. 

Addison, Sped. No. 421. 

1709-11: Shakespeare . . . according to his agreeable wildness of imagination. 

Tatler, No. 111. 

1690: There must be a universal genius of great compass as well as great elevation. 
There must be a spritely imagination or fancy, fertile in a thousand productions, 
ranging over infinite ground, piercing into every corner, and by the light of that true 
poetical fire discovering a thousand little bodies or images in the world, and similitudes 
among them, unseen to common eyes, and which could not be discovered without 
the rays of that sun. Sir William Temple, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 81. 

1675: A fourth [virtue] is elevation of fancy, which is generally taken for the greatest 
praise of heroic poetry, and is so when governed by discretion. For men more generally 
affect and admire fancy than they do either judgment or reason or memory or any 
other intellectual virtue, and for the pleasantness of it, accounting reason and judgment 
but for a dull entertainment. For in fancy consisteth the sublimity of a poet, which 
is the poetical fury which the readers for the most part call for. It flies abroad swiftly 
to fetch in both matter and words; but if there be no discretion at home to distinguish 
which are fit to be used and which are not, which decent and which undecent, for 
persons, times, and places, their delight and grace are lost. But if they be discreetly 
used, they are greater ornaments of a poem by much than any other. 

Thomas Hobbes, Homer, preface. 

1651: Judgment and fancy may have place in the same man; but by turns; as the end 
which he aimeth at requireth. As the Israelites in Egypt were sometimes fastened 
to their labor of making bricks, and other times were ranging abroad to gather straw; 



90 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

so also may the judgment sometimes be fixed upon one certain consideration, and the 
fancy at another time wandering about the world. Hobbes, Leviathan, p. 712. 

1620-35: [Shakespeare] . . . had an excellent phantasy. 

Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I, p. 19. 

1632: Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 

Warble his native wood -notes wild. 

Milton, U Allegro. 

1620-35: A poet is that which by the Greeks is called, nar' k£oxvv, & Trowqs, 
a maker, . . . from the word iroeiv, which signifies to make. 

Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I, p. 50. 

1581: Only the poet . . . lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow in 
effect another nature in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or 
quite a new form such as never was in nature. 

Sidney, Apol. Poetry, Oxf. Die, Poet. 

Conjectures (p. 53) : And since copies surpass not their originals, as streams 
rise not higher than their spring, rarely so high; hence, while arts mechanic 
are in perpetual progress, and increase, the liberal are in retrogradation, 
and decay. 

1605: For as water will not ascend higher than the level of the first springhead from 
whence it descended, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, and exempted from liberty 
of examination, will not rise again higher than the knowledge of Aristotle. 

Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Vol. I, p. 37. 

Conjectures (p. 54) : Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die 
copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to years of 
indiscretion (so let me speak), snatches the pen, and blots out nature's 
mark of separation, cancels her kind intention, destroys all mental 
individuality; the lettered world no longer consists of singulars, it is a 
medley, a mass; and a hundred books, at bottom, are but one. 

1753: It is often charged upon writers that with all their pretensions to genius and 
discoveries, they do little more than copy one another; and that compositions obtruded 
upon the world with the pomp of novelty, contain only tedious repetitions of common 
sentiments, or at best exhibit a transposition of known images, and give a new appear- 
ance to truth only by some slight difference of dress and decoration. . . . The com- 
plaint, therefore, that all topics are pre-occupied, is nothing more than the murmur 
of ignorance or idleness, by which some discourage others and some themselves: the 
mutability of mankind will always furnish writers with new images, and the luxuriance 
of fancy may always embellish them with new decorations. 

The Adventurer, No. 95. 
1685: The most reverenced authors of antiquity have not been able to escape the 
conceitedness of essayers, nor Hudibras himself, that admirable original, his little 
apers, though so artless in their imitations, so unlike and so lifeless are their copies, that 
it were impossible to guess after what hands they drew, if their vanity did not take 
care to inform us in the title-page. 

Robert Wolesley, Preface to Valentiniati, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 13. 



APPENDIX I 91 

Conjectures (p. 55) : The modern powers are equal to those before them. 
. . . Reasons there are why talents may not appear, none why they 
should not exist, as much in one period as another. An evocation of 
vegetable fruits depends on rain, air, and sun; an evocation of genius 
no less depends on externals. . . . Virgil and Horace owed their divine 
talents to heaven; their immortal works to men; thank Maecenas and 
Augustus for them. 

1756: Not only inclination, but opportunity and encouragement, a proper subject, or 
a proper patron, influence the exertion or the suppression of genius. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 76. 

1694: Upon the whole matter one may positively say that where anything wherein 
oratory can only claim a share has been equally cultivated by the moderns as by the 
ancients, they have equalled them at least, if not outdone them, setting aside any 
particular graces which might as well be owing to the languages in which they wrote 
as to the writers themselves. 

William Wotton, Ancient and Modern Learning, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 216. 

1622: But while we look back to antiquity, let us not forget our later and modern 
times (as imagining nature hath heretofore extracted her quintescence and left us the 
dregs), which produce as fertile wits as perhaps the other; yea, and in our Britain. 
Henry Peacham, Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I, p. 128. 

Conjectures (p. 55) : Who hath fathomed the mind of man? Its bounds 
are as unknown as those of the creation; since the birth of which, perhaps, 
not one has so far exerted as not to leave his possibilities beyond his 
attainments, his powers beyond his exploits. 

1712: It is a-remark made by a celebrated French author that no man ever pushed his 
capacity as far as it was able to extend. Sped. No. 554. 

Conjectures (p. 56) : Genius, in this view, is like a dear friend in our com- 
pany under disguise who, while we are lamenting his absence, drops his 
mask, striking us at once, with equal surprise and joy. This sensation, 
which I speak of in a writer, might favor and so promote the fable of 
poetic inspiration: A poet of a strong imagination and a stronger vanity, 
on feeling it, might naturally enough realize the world's mere compliment 
and think himself truly inspired. Which is not improbable, for enthusiasts 
of all kinds do no less. 

1739: They think themselves inspired by God, and are not. But false, imaginary 
inspiration is enthusiasm. I have often wished that all calm and impartial men would 
consider what is advanced by another writer in a little dissertation concerning enthu- 
siasm or religious delusion, published about this time. 

Wesley's Journal, (Nov. 1, 1739). 

1718: The enthusiast dreams of nothing but gifts and commissions from heaven. 
... He alone converses with Heaven; he sees God, he is a prophet; he feels the 
Divine Spirit within him. The Free Thinker, No. 22. 



92 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1718: When a heated imagination concurs with a profound ignorance of the nature of 
God, it immediately erects every production of its own into the divine inspiration. 
A person thus justified never inquires whether his warm conceptions be right or wrong; 
nor coolly examines whether he bas any reason to believe his instigation from God. 

The Free Thinker, No. 22. 

1718: Enthusiasm, therefore, is a kind of irregular and almost unaccountable madness. 

The Free Thinker, No. 22. 

1711: Enthusiasm is wonderfully powerful and extensive; . . . Nor can divine 
inspiration, by its outward marks, be easily distinguished from it. For inspiration 
is a real feeling of the Divine Presence, and enthusiasm a false one. But the passion 
they raise is much alike. Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. I, p. 37. 

1769: The melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration. 

Junius, Letters, Vol. VII, p. 30. 

1655: A heat, a fervent heat, a fire; which powerful orators found in themselves, not 
at the uttering, though then greatest, but upon another consideration; but in con- 
ceiving and composing their speeches; so generally observed and acknowledged, that 
some have thought that no other art or thing was necessary to make a perfect orator: 
that heat, that fervent heat, that fire, hath been in the ignis fatnus, we say, that hath 
infatuated many speakers into that opinion of divine inspiration. Ardor and impetus, 
are the words by Latin authors to this purpose, Nulla me ingenii, sed magna vis animi 
inflamat, ut me ipse non teneam, saith Cicero of himself. 

Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 163. 

1655: Enthusiasm, say I, is either natural or supernatural. By supernatural I under- 
stand a true and real possession of some extrinsical superior power, whether divine, 
or diabolical, producing effects and operations altogether supernatuial. ... By 
natural enthusiasm I understand an extraordinary, transcendent, but natural fer- 
vency, or pregnancy of the soul, spirits, or brain, producing strange effects, apt to be 
mistaken for supernatural. Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 17. 

250 ca. : So it is with some of the expressions of Callisthenes which are not sublime but 
highflown, and still more with those of Cleitarchus, ... for often when these 
writers seem to themselves to be inspired they are in no true frenzy (oft fianxevovoiv) 
but are simply trifling (dXXA iral$ov<uv). Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 47. 

Conjectures (p. 56 f.): Know thyself . . . dive deep into thy bosom; 
learn the depth, extent, bias, and full fort of thy mind; contract full 
intimacy with the stranger within thee; excite and cherish every spark 
of intellectual light and heat, however smothered under former negli- 
gence, or scattered through the dull, dark mass of common thoughts; 
and collecting them into a body, let thy genius rise (if a genius thou hast) 
as the sun from chaos. 

1754: A label inscribed, as was the temple of Apollo, with YvG>6i otavrbv. 

Young, Vol. II, p. 420. 

1742-45: Thyself, first, know; then love. Young, Vol. I, p. 172. 



APPENDIX I 93 

1711: The greater danger in these latter kind of geniuses is, lest they cramp their 
own abilities too much by imitation, and form themselves altogether upon models, 
without giving the full play to their own natural parts. Addison, Sped. No. 160. 

1609: For men ought to take an unpartial view of their own abilities and virtues; 
and again of their wants and impediments; accounting these with the most, and 
those other with the least. Bacon, Advancement of Learning, p. 234. 

Conjectures (p. 57): This is the difference between those two luminaries 
in literature, the well-accomplished scholar and the divinely-inspired 
enthusiast; the first is as the bright morning-star; the second as the rising 
sun. 

1753: Every affection of the human soul, while it rages with violence, is a momentary 
frenzy. When, therefore, a poet is able, by the force of genius, or rather of imagination 
to conceive any emotion of the mind so perfectly as to transfer to his own feelings 
the instinctive passion of another, and, agreeably to the nature of the subject, to 
express it in all its vigor; such a one, according to a common mode of speaking, may 
be said to possess the true poetic enthusiasm, or, as the ancients would have expressed 
it, "to be inspired; full of the God." Aristoteles expresses it y.aviK6%, insane; Plato 
iK<i>pova, out of their common senses; tv9eov, inspired by a God; kvdvaib.$ovTa, enthusi- 
astic. Lowth, Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, 177 ff . 

1735: Here it is that our author's genius shines in its full lustre. . . . Though he 
enjoyed all that fire of imagination and divine enthusiasm for which some of the 
ancient poets are so deservedly admired, yet did his fancy never run away with his 
reason, but was always guided by a superior judgment. 

William Duncombe, in his preface to the poems of John Hughes. 

1712: The Morning Hymn [in Paradise Lost] is written in imitation of one of those 
Psalms where, in the overflowings of gratitude and praise, the Psalmist calls not only 
upon the angels, but upon the most conspicuous parts of the inanimated creation to 
join with him in extolling their common maker. Invocations of this nature fill the 
mind with glorious ideas of God's works, and awaken that divine enthusiasm which is 
so natural to devotion. Spectator, No. 327. 

1711: Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit. (The man is either raving or composing. 
Hor. Sat., II, VII, 118.) Composing and raving must necessarily, we see, bear a 
resemblance. Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. I, p. 108. 

1655: I believe Aristotle, here quoted by Seneca, that all transcendent wits are subject 
to some mixture : neither do I believe that ever any great work, that was a fruit of the 
brain, and that begot admiration, was achieved, but was also the fruit of some natural 
enthusiasm. Casaubon, Enthusiasm, p. 145. 

Conjectures (p. 57): The writer who neglects those two rules above 
["Know thyself !" — "Reverence thyself!"] will never stand alone; he makes 
one of a group, and thinks in wretched unanimity with the throng: 
incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by their 
abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; opens 
not the least vista through the gloom of ordinary writers into the bright 



94 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

walks of rare imagination, and singular design; while the true genius is 
crossing all public roads into fresh, untrodden ground. 

1756: Bacon in his Novum Organum, divides the human genius into two sorts: Men 
of dry distinct heads, cool imaginations, and keen application. . . . The second sort 
of men, of warm fancies, elevated thought, and wide knowledge; they instantly per- 
ceive the resemblances of things, and are poets, or masters in science, invent arts, and 
strike out new light wherever they carry their views. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 1 15. 

1754: For however monstrous and unnatural these compositions may appear to this 
age of reason and refinement, they merit more attention than the world is willing to 
bestow. . . . Above all, such are their terrible graces of magic and enchantment, so 
magnificently marvelous are their fictions and failings, that they contribute in a 
wonderful degree, to rouse and invigorate all the powers of imagination to store the 
fancy with those sublime and alarming images, which true poetry best delights to dis- 
play. Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. II, pp. 323 f. 

1746: Any work where the imagination is much indulged, will perhaps not be relished 
or regarded. The author therefore of these pieces is in some pain lest certain austere 
critics should think them too fanciful and descriptive. But as he is convinced that 
the fashion of moralizing in verse has been carried too far, and as he looks upon inven- 
tion and imagination to be the chief faculties of a poet, so he will be happy if the fol- 
lowing odes may be looked upon as an attempt to bring back poetry into its right 
channel. Joseph Warton, Advertisement prefacing his Odes on Various Subjects. 

1703: If we survey the ten pastorals in a general view, it will be found that Virgil can 
derive from them very little claim to the praise of an inventor. . . .Yet though I 
would willingly pay to Theocritus the honor which is always due to an original author, 
I am far from intending to depreciate Virgil. The Adventurer, No. 92. 

1690: Nay, it is possible men may lose rather than gain by them [the ancients], may 
lessen the force and growth of their own genius by constraining and forming it upon 
that of others, may have less knowledge of their own for contenting themselves with 
that of those before them. Besides, who can tell whether learning may not even 
weaken invention in a man that has great advantages from nature and birth, whether 
the weight and number of so many other men's thoughts and notions may not sup- 
press his own or hinder the motion and agitation of them from which all invention 
arises; as heaping on wood, or too many sticks, or too close together, suppresses and 
sometimes quite extinguishes a little spark that would otherwise have grown up to a 
noble flame. 
Sir William Temple, On Ancient and Modern Learning, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 48. 

Conjectures (p. 58) : What a fall is it from Homer's numbers, free as air, 
lofty, and harmonious as the spheres, into childish shackles and tinkling 
sounds! 

1754: It is indeed surprising upon the whole that Spenser should execute a poem of 
uncommon length with so much spirit and ease, laden as he was with so many shackles, 
and embarrassed with so complicated a bondage of riming. 

Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, p. 168. 



APPENDIX I 95 

1690: My Lord Roscommon was more impartial; no man ever rimed truer and evener 
than he; yet he is so just as to confess that it is but a trifle, and to wish the tyrant 
dethroned, and blank verse set up in its room. There is a third person, (Mr. Dryden,) 
the living glory of our English poetry, who has disclaimed the use of it upon the stage, 
though no man ever employed it there so happily as he. It was the strength of his 
genius that first brought it into credit in plays, and it is the force of his example that 
has thrown it out again. In other kinds of writing it continues still, and will do so till 
some excellent spirit arises that has leisure enough, and resolution, to break the charm, 
and free us from the troublesome bondage of riming, as Mr. Milton very well calls it 
and has proved it so well by what he has wrote in another way. 

"Preface to the second part of Mr. Waller's poem, printed in the year 1690." 

1667: The learned languages have certainly a great advantage of us, in not being tied 
to the slavery of any rime. Dryden, Preface to Annus Mirabilis, p. 12. 

1667: Thus, you see, your rime is incapable of expressing the greatest thoughts natur- 
ally, and the lowest it cannot with grace: for what is more unbefitting the majesty of 
verse, than to call a servant, or bid a door be shut, in rime? 

Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, p. 93. 

Conjectures (p. 58) : How much nobler, if he [Pope in his translation of 
Homer] had resisted the temptation of that Gothic demon [rime], which 
modern poesy tasting, became mortal? O how unlike the deathless, 
divine harmony of three great names (how justly joined!) of Milton, 
Greece, and Rome. 

1711: To their eternal honor they [Shakespeare, Fletcher, Jonson, and Milton] have 
withal been the first of Europeans who, since the Gothic model of poetry, attempted 
to throw off the horrid discord of jingling rime. 

Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. I, p. 142. 

1711: But so much our British poets are taken up in seeking up that monstrous orna- 
ment which we call rime, that it is no wonder if other ornaments and real graces are 
unthought of and left unattempted. However, since in some parts of poetry (especi- 
ally in the dramatic) we have been so happy as to triumph over this barbarous taste, 
it is unaccountable that our poets, who from this privilege ought to undertake some 
further refinements, should remain still upon the same level as before. 

Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. II, pp. 329 f. 

1684: Of many faults rime is perhaps the cause; 

Too strict to rime, we slight more useful laws; 
For that in Greece or Rome was never known, 
Till, by barbarian deluges o'erflown, 
Subdu'd, undone, they did at last obey, 
And change their own for their invaders way. 
Wentworth Dillon, An Essay on Translated Verse, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II, p. 308. 

1675 : That poetry was in small price ... is manifest and no great marvel, for even 
that light of Greek and Latin poets which they had, they much contemned, as appear- 
eth by their rude versifying which of long time was used (a barbarous use it was) 
wherein they converted the natural property of the sweet Latin verse to be a bald 



96 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

kind of riming, thinking nothing to be learnedly written in verse which fell not out 
in rime, that is, in words whereof the middle word of each verse should sound alike 
with the last, or of two verses, the end of both should fall in the like letters. . . . 
The truth is, the use of measure alone would give far more ample scope and liberty, 
both to style and fancy, than can possibly be observed in rime. 

Edwards Phillips. Theatrum Poetarum. 

1668: The measure is English heroic verse rime, . . . rime being no necessary 
adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but 
the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meter, . . . 
the jingling sound of like endings a fault avoided by the learned ancients, both in 
poetry and all good oratory. This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a 
defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed 
an example set, the first in English of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from 
the troublesome and modern bondage riming. 

Milton, Preface to Paradise Lost, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I, p. 206. 

1586: Which rude kind of verse (equal number of syllables and rime) though it rather 
discrediteth our speech as borrowed from the barbarians, then furnisheth the same 
with any comely ornament. William Webbe, Discourse, p. 56. 

Conjectures (p. 59): But supposing Pope's Iliad to have been perfect in 
its kind; yet it is a translation still; which differs as much from an original 
as the moon from the sun. 

1728: Originals only have true life, and differ as much from the best imitations as men 
from the most animated pictures of them. Young, Vol. I, p. 418. 

Conjectures (p. 58 f.) : Harmony as well as eloquence is essential to poesy; 
and a murder of his music is putting half Homer to death. Blank is a 
term of diminution; what we mean by blank verse, is verse unfallen, 
uncurst; verse reclaimed, reinthroned in the true language of the gods; 
who never thundered, nor suffered their Homer to thunder, in rime; and 
therefore, I beg you, my friend, to crown it with some nobler term; 
nor let the greatness of the thing lie under the defamation of such a 
name. 

1711: Aristotle observes that the iambic verse in the Greek tongue was the most 
proper for tragedy; because at the same time that it lifted up the discourse from prose, 
it was that which approached nearer to it than any other kind of verse. "For (says 
he), we may observe that men in ordinary discourse very often speak iambics without 
taking notice of it." We may make the same observations of our English blank 
verse, which often enters into our common discourse, though we do not attend to it, 
and is such a due medium between rime and prose, that it seems wonderfully adapted 
to tragedy. Addison, Sped. No. 39. 

1667: First, then, I am of opinion, that rime is unnatural in a play because dialogue 
there is presented as the effect of sudden thought; for a play is the imitation of nature; 
and since no man without premeditation speaks in rime, neither ought he to do it on 
the stage. . . . For this reason,, says Aristotle, 'tis best to write tragedy in that 



APPENDIX I 97 

kind of verse which is the least such, or which is nearest prose: and this amongst the 
ancients was the iambic, and with us is blank verse, as the measure of verse kept 
exactly without rime. Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, p. 91. 

1665: Another way of the ancients which the French follow, and our stage has now 
lately practiced, is to write in rime; and this is the dispute betwixt many ingenious 
persons, whether verse in rime, or verse without the sound, which may be called 
blank verse (though a hard expression), is to be preferred? But take the question 
largely, and it is never to be decided, but by right application I suppose it may; for 
in the general they are both proper, that is, one for a play, the other for a poem or copy 
of verses, — a blank verse being as much too low for one as rime is unnatural for the 
other. Sir Robert Howard, Pre/, to four new Plays, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II, p. 101. 

1602 : In those lack-learning times, and in barbarized Italy, began that vulgar and easy 
kind of poesy which is now in use throughout most parts of Christendom which we 
abusively call rime and meter, of rithmus and metrum. . . . The facility and popu- 
larity of rime creates as many poets, as a hot summer flies. . . . The noble Grecians 
and Romans, whose skillful monuments outlive barbarism, tied themselves to the 
strict observation of poetical numbers, so abandoning the childish titillation of riming, 
that it was imputed a great error to Ovid for setting forth this one riming verse, 
Quot caelum Stellas, tot habet tua Roma puellas. 

Thomas Campion, Observations, pp. 4 f. 

1586: Rime was tried by the Greek Symias Rhodias, but he was not admitted as an 
author on account of it. . . . It was later practiced by the Goths and Huns, and 
by them introduced into Italy. William Webbe, Discourse, p. 57. 

1586: Unrimed poetry "that commendable kind of writing in true verse." 

William Webbe, A Discourse of English Poetry, p. 68. 

1586: Piers Ploughman was the first that I have seen that observed the quality 
of our verse without the curiosity of rime. 

William Webbe, A Dissertation on English Poetry, p. 32. 

Conjectures (p. 59): Lucian, who was an original, . . . replied, "I am 
indeed the inventor of new work, the model of which I owe to none." 
1756: Pope was a most excellent improver, if no great original inventor. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 295. 

1756: If it should be objected that the barrenness of invention, imputed to Pope 
from a view of his Pastorals, is equally imputable to the Bucolics of Virgil, it may 
be answered, that, whatever may be determined of the rest, yet, the first and last 
Eclogues of Virgil are indisputable proofs of true genius, and power of fancy. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 9. 

1754: Gower and Chaucer were justly reputed the first English poets, because they were 
the first, of any note at least, who introduced invention into our poetry. 

Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. II, p. 94. 

1754: However, in the reign of Henry VII. this interval of darkness was happily 
removed by Stephen Hawes, a name generally unknown and not mentioned by any 
compiler of the lives of English poets. This author was at this period the restorer 






98 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

of invention, which seems to have suffered a gradual degeneracy from the days of 
Chaucer. Thomas Warton, Observations on the fairy Queen, Vol. II, p. 96 f. 

1735 : Mr. Hughes, when he was but nineteen, writ a tragedy entitled Amalasout, Queen 
of the Goths, which displays a fertile genius, and a masterly invention. 

John Hughes, Poems, Preface by William Dumcombe. 

1712: Adam and Eve, before the fall, are a different species from that of mankind who 
are descended from them; and none but a poet of the most unbounded invention and 
the most exquisite judgment could have filled their conversation and behaviour with 
such beautiful circumstances during their state of innocence. 

Addison, Sped. No. 279. 

1706: Tis a new invented kind of fable, very different from anything which had 
ever been written before, and therefore it may justly be esteemed an original. 

John Hughes, in his preface to Political Touchstone of Trajano Boccalini. 

1675: If invention be the grand part of a poet, or maker, and verse the least, then cer- 
tainly the more sublime the argument, the nobler the invention, and by consequence the 
greater the poet. Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum. 

Conjectures (p. 60) : Imitation is inferiority confessed; emulation is superi- 
ority contested, or denied; imitation is servile, emulation generous; 
that fetters, this fires; that may give a name, this a name immortal. 
This made Athens to succeeding ages the rule of taste, and the standard 
of perfection. Her men struck fire against each other; and kindled, by 
conflict, into glories no time shall extinguish. 

1728: Emulation is an exalted and glorious passion, . . . Its generous food is praise; 
its sublime profession, transcendency; and the life it pants after, immortality. It 
kindles at all that is illustrious, and, as it were, lights its torch at the sun. 

Young, Vol. II, p. 351. 

1634: I conversed with some of the moderns as well as with the ancients, kindling my 
fire at those fires which do still burn out of ashes of ancient authors. 

Sir William Alexander, Anacrisis, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I, p. 181. 

250 ca. : Another way (beyond anything we have mentioned) leads to the sublime. . . . 
It is the imitation and emulation. And let this, my dear friend, be an aim to which 
we steadfastly apply ourselves. For many men are carried away by the spirit of others 
as if inspired. . . . Similarly from the great natures of the men of old there are 
borne in upon the souls of those who emulate them (as from sacred caves) what we may 
describe as effluences, so that even those who seem little likely to be possessed are 
thereby inspired and succumb to the spell of the others' greatness. 

Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 81. 

Conjectures (p. 61): True poesy, like true religion, abhors idolatry; and 
though it honors the memory of the exemplary, and takes them willingly 
(yet cautiously) as guides in the way to glory; real (though unexampled) 
excellence is its only aim ; nor looks it for any inspiration less than divine. 

1684: When, by impulse from heaven, Tyrtaeus sung, 



APPENDIX I 99 

In drooping soldiers a new courage sprung. 

Wentworth Dillion, Essay on Translated Verse, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II, p. 307. 

1671: Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite 
Into the desert, his victorious field, 
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence, 
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire, 
As thou art want, my prompted song. 

Paradise Regained, 1, 11. 8-12. 

Conjectures (p. 61) : Though Pope's noble muse may boast her illustrious 
descent from Homer, Virgil, Horace, yet is an original author more nobly 
born. As Tacitus says of Curtius Rufus, an original author is born of 
himself, is his own progenitor, and will probably propagate a numerous 
offspring of imitators, to eternize his glory; while mule-like imitators die 
without issue. Therefore we stand much obliged for his giving us a 
Homer, yet had he doubled our obligation by giving us — a Pope. Had he 
a strong imagination and the true sublime? That granted, we might 
have had two Homers instead of one, if longer had been his life; for I 
heard the dying swan talk over an epic plan a few weeks before his 
decease. 

1756: Perhaps the Inferno of Dante is the next composition to the Iliad, in point of 
originality and sublimity; and with regard to the pathetic, let this tale stand a testi- 
mony of his abilities: for my own part, I truly believe it was never carried to a greater 
height. Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 252 f. 

1756: Whatever censures we have here too boldly, perhaps, ventured to deliver on 
the professed poetry of Addison, yet we must candidly own, that in various parts of 
his prose essays are to be found many strokes of genuine and sublime poetry; many 
marks of a vigorous and exuberant imagination. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 265. 

1756: Pope, it is said, had framed a design of writing an epic poem on a fact recorded 
in our old annalists, and therefore more engaging to an Englishman; on the Arrival 
of Brutus, the supposed grandson of Aeneas, in our island, and the settlement of the 
first foundations of the British monarchy. A full scope might have been given to a 
vigorous imagination, to embellish a fiction drawn from the bosom of the remotest 
antiquity. . . . But shall I be pardoned for suspecting, that Pope would not have 
succeeded in his design; that so didactic a genius would have been deficient in that 
sublime and pathetic, which are the main nerves of the epopee; . . . that Pope's 
close and constant reasoning had impaired and crushed the faculty of imagination; 
that the political reflections, in this piece, would, in all probability, have been more 
numerous than the affecting strokes of nature; ... in a word, that this composition 
would have shown more of the philosopher than of the poet. Add to all this that 
it was to have been written in rime; a circumstance sufficient of itself alone to over- 
whelm and extinguish all enthusiasm, and produce sudden tautologies and circum- 
locutions. Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, pp. 275 f. 






100 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1756: The sublime and the pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genuine poesy. 
What is there transcendentally sublime or pathetic in Pope? . . . Our English poets 
may, I think, be disposed in four different classes and degrees. In the first class I 
would place our only three sublime and pathetic poets: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton. 
Joseph Warton, On the Genius and Writings of Pope, Dedication. 

1730: In life or song how rare the true sublime! Young, Vol. II, p. 30. 

1712: Milton's chief talent, and indeed his distinguishing excellence, lies in the sub- 
limity of his thoughts. Spectator, No. 279. 

1712: Milton's sentiments and ideas were so wonderfully sublime, etc. 

Addison, Sped. No. 297. 

1712: A poet should take as much pains in forming his imagination as a philosopher 
in cultivating his understanding. He must gain a due relish of the works of nature, 
and be thoroughly conversant in the various scenery of a country. . . . Such advan- 
tages as these help to open a man's thoughts, and to enlarge his imagination, and will 
therefore have their influence on all kinds of writing, if the author knows how to 
make right use of them. Spectator, No 417. 

1712: Milton's exuberance of imagination. Addison, Sped. No. 320. 

1712: For to have a true relish and form a right judgment of a description, a man 
should be born with a good imagination. . . . The fancy must be warm to retain 
the print of those images it hath received from outward objects; and the judgment 
discerning, to know what expressions are most proper to clothe and adorn them to 
the best advantage. Addison, Sped. No. 416. 

1712: "Set forth in all the wantonness of a luxuriant imagination." 

Addison, Sped. No. 315. 

1709: The most active principle in our mind is the imagination: to it a good poet 
makes his court perpetually, and by this faculty takes care to gain it first. Our passions 
and inclinations come over next; and our reason surrenders itself with pleasure in the 
end. The Taller, No. 98. 

250 ca.: For, as if instinctively, our soul is uplifted by the true sublime; it takes a 
proud flight, and is filled with joy and vaunting, as though it had itself produced what 
it has heard. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 55. 

250 ca. : If you take away the sublime, you will remove as it were the soul from the 
body, . . . sublimity consists in elevation, while amplification embraces a multi- 
tude of details. Longinus, On the Sublime, pp. 75 and 77. 

Conjectures (p. 61): Moreover, so boundless are the bold excursions of 
the human mind, that, in the vast void beyond real existence, it can call 
forth shadowy beings, and unknown worlds, as numerous, as bright, and 
perhaps as lasting, as the stars; such quite-original beauties we may 
call paradisaical, 

Notos sine semine flores. — Ovid. 

1754: Ariosto was Spenser's favorite; ... he was naturally biassed to prefer that 
plan which would admit the most extensive range for his unlimited imagination. 
Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, p. 6. 



APPENDIX I 101 

1753: "Whoever ventures," says Horace, "to form a character totally original, let 
him endeavor to preserve it with uniformity and consistency: but the formation of 
an original character is a work of great difficulty and hazard." In this arduous and 
uncommon task, however, Shakespeare has wonderfully succeeded in his Tempest: 
the monster Caliban is the creature of his own imagination, in the formation of which 
he could derive no assistance from observation or experience. 

The Adventurer, No. 97. 

1742-45: And the vast void beyond. Young, Vol. I, p. 194. 

1742-45: Worlds beyond number, worlds conceal'd by day, 

Behind the proud envious star of noon! Young, Vol. I, p. 226. 

1712 : So we may observe that our first parents seldom lose sight of their happy station 
in anything they speak or do; and, if the reader will give me leave to use the expression, 
that their thoughts are always paradisaical. Addison, Sped. No. 320. 

1712: There is another sort of imaginary beings that we sometimes meet with among 
the poets, when the author represents any passion, appetite, virtue, or vice, under a 
visible shape, and makes it a person or an actor in his poem. Of this nature are the 
descriptions of Hunger and Envy in Ovid, of Fame in Virgil, and of Sin and Death in 
Milton. We find a whole creation of the like shadowy persons in Spenser, who had an 
admirable talent in representations of this kind. Addison, Sped. No. 419. 

1712 : There is a kind of writing wherein the poet quite loses sight of nature, and enter- 
tains his reader's imagination with the characters and actions of such persons as 
have many of them no existence but what he bestows on them; such are fairies, witches, 
magicians, demons, and departed spirits. This Mr. Dryden calls the fairy way of 
•writing, which is, indeed, more difficult than any other that depends on the poet's 
fancy, because he has no pattern to follow in it, and must work altogether out of his 
own invention. There is a very odd turn of thought required for this sort of writing, 
and it is impossible for a poet to succeed in it who has not a particular cast of fancy, 
and an imagination naturally fruitful and superstitious. . . . We are pleased with 
surveying the different habits and behaviours of foreign countries, how much more 
must we be delighted and surprised when we are led, as it were, into a new creation, 
and see the persons and manners of another species? Men of cold fancies and philo- 
sophical dispositions, object to this kind of poetry, that it has not probability enough 
to affect the imagination. But to this it may be answered that we are sure, in general, 
there are many intellectual beings in the world besides ourselves, and several species 
of spirits, who are subject to different laws and economies from those of mankind; 
when we see, therefore, any of these represented naturally, we cannot look upon the 
representation as altogether impossible. Addison, Sped. No. 419. 

1712: Thus we see how many ways poetry addresses itself to the imagination, as it 
has not only the whole circle of nature for its province, but makes new worlds of its 
own, shows us persons who are not to be found in being, and represents even the 
faculties of the soul, with her several virtues and vices, in a sensible shape and 
character. Addison, Sped. No. 419. 

1712: The supernatural and allegorical persons, which may on some occasions be 
introduced in it [an opera], though not allowed in tragedy, are amusing to the imagina- 
tion ; and though they are characters formed beyond the bounds of nature and reality, 



102 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

there is a kind of poetical nature that presides here, and ought to regulate the poet's 
invention and conduct. John Hughes, Preface to Calypso and Telemachus. 

1711: Nor must we omit one consideration which adds to his honor and reputation. 
Homer and Virgil introduced persons whose characters are commonly known among 
men, and such as are to be met with either in history, or in ordinary conversation. 
Milton's characters, most of them, lie out of nature, and were to be formed purely 
by his own invention. It shows a greater genius in Shakespeare to have drawn his 
Caliban, than his Hotspur or Julius Caesar: The one was to be supplied out of his 
own imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon tradition, history 
or observation. Addison, Sped. No. 279. 

250 ca. : Not even the entire universe suffices for the thought and contemplation within 
the reach of the human mind, but our imaginations often pass beyond the bounds 
of space. . . . Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 135. 

Conjectures (p. 62) : Since a marvelous light, unenjoyed of old, is poured 
on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our understanding, 
with brighter objects enriching our imagination, with an inestimable 
prize setting our passions on fire, thus strengthening every power that 
enables composition to shine. 

1758: Les passions sont, en effet, le feu celeste qui vivifie le moral; c'est aux passions 
que les sciences et les arts doivent leurs decouvertes et l'ame son elevation. 

HelvStius, De V esprit, p. 364. 

1754: If the imagination be lively, the passions will be strong. True genius seldom 
resides in a cold and phlegmatic constitution. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 102. 

1739: 'Tis however certain, that in the warmth of a poetical enthusiasm a poet has 
a counterfeit belief, and even a kind of vision of his objects. And if there be any 
shadow of argument to support this belief, nothing contributes more to his full convic- 
tion than a blaze of poetical figures and images, which have this effect upon the poet 
himself, as well as upon his readers. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, p. 423. 

1712: The author's (Milton's) imagination was so inflamed with this great scene of 
action that wherever he speaks of it he rises, if possible, above himself. 

Spectator, No. 333. 

1695: 'Tis therefore no wonder that so wise a state as that of Athens should retain 
the poets on the side of religion and government. . . . The poets were looked on as 
divine, not only on account of that extraordinary fury and heat of imagination, where- 
with they are thought to be inspired, but likewise upon . . . their business being 
to represent vice as the most odious, and virtue as the most desirable thing in the 
world. 

Sir Richard Blackmore, Preface to Prince Arthur, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, pp. 227 f. 

1685: From this sublime and daring genius of his [speaking of Lucretius] it must of 
necessity come to pass, that his thoughts must be masculine, full of argumentation, 
and that sufficiently warm. From the same fiery temper proceeds the loftiness of 
his expressions, and the perpetual torrent of his verse, where the barrenness of his 



y 



APPENDIX I 103 

subject does not too much constrain the quickness of his fancy. 

Dryden, Preface to Sylvae, p. 260. 

1682. A higher flight, and of a happier force, 
Are odes, the muses most unruly horse, 
That bounds so fierce the rider has no rest, 
But foams at mouth, and speaks like one possessed, 
The poet here must be indeed inspired, 
And not with fancy, but with fury fired. 

John Sheffield, An Essay upon Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II, p. 289. 

1598: For that fine madness still he did retain, 

Which rightly should possess a poet's brain. 

Michael Drayton, Epistle to Reynolds, ed. Spingarn, p. 137. 

1590 The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling, 

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. 

Shakespeare, Midsummer Nights Dream. 

250 ca. : There are, it may be said, five principle sources of elevated language. . . . First 
and most important is the power of forming great conceptions, as we have elsewhere 
explained in our remarks on Xenophon. Secondly, there is vehement and inspired 
passion. These two components of the sublime are for the most part innate. Those 
which remain are partly the product of art. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 57. 

250ca. : I would affirm with confidence that there is no tone so lofty as that of genuine 
passion, in its right place, when it bursts out in a wild gust of mad enthusiasm and, 
as it were, fills the speaker's words with frenzy. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 59. 

Conjectures (p. 62): Tully, Quintillian, and all true critics allow, that 
virtue assists genius, and that the writer will be more able, when better is 
the man. 
1730: Such writers have we! all but sense they print; 



Reform your lives before you thus aspire. Young, Vol. II, p. 34. 

1730: Would you restore just honors to the pen? 

From able writers rise to worthy men. Young, Vol. II, p. 44. 

1729: The character of honest men comprehends the whole. That gives great author- 
ity where there is not great ability; and where there is, breathes something divine. 

Young, Vol. II, p. 381. 

1605 : For if men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and functions 
of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being 
the good poet without first being a good man. 

Ben Jonson, Dedicatory Epistle to Valpone, ed. Spingarn, p. 12. 

250 ca.: For it is not possible that men with mean and servile ideas and aims pre- 
vailing throughout their lives should produce anything that is admirable and worthy 
of immortality. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 61. 

Conjectures (p. 63) : It is prudence to read, genius to relish, glory to sur- 



104 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

pass, ancient authors; and wisdom to try our strength in an attempt in 
which it would be no great dishonor to fail. 

250 ca. : Failure in a great attempt is at least a noble error. 

Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 49. 

250 ca: And it seems to me that there would not have been so fine a bloom of perfection 
on Plato's philosophical doctrines, and that he would not in many cases have found 
his way to poetical subject-matter and modes of expression, unless he had with all 
his heart and mind struggled with Homer for the primacy, entering the lists like a 
young champion matched against the man whom all admire, and showing perhaps 
too much love of contention and breaking a lance with him as it were, but deriving 
some profit from the contest none the less. For, as Hesiod says, " This strife is good 
for mortals," and in truth that struggle for the crown of glory is noble, and best de- 
serves the victory in which even to be worsted by one's predecessors brings no dis 
credit. Longinus, On the Sublime, p. 81. 

Conjectures (p. 63) : Something new may be expected from Britons par- 
ticularly; who seem not to be more severed from the rest of mankind by 
the surrounding sea, than by the current in their veins; and of whom 
little more appears to be required, in order to give us originals, than a 
consistency of character, and making their compositions of a piece with 
their lives. 

1754: Much more might this success be reasonably expected in such geniuses as Britain 
can enumerate; yet no piece of this sort, worthy of applause or notice, has ever yet 
appeared. The Adventurer, No. 127. 

1727: Everything, my lord, our trade, our peace, our liberty, the complexion of our 
language and of our government, and the disposition of spirit of the Britons, admirably 
turned by nature for succeeding in poetry, all would conspire to make this nation 
the rival of the most renowned among the ancients for works of wit and genius. 

Leonard Welsted, The Perfection of the English Language, p. 15. 

1712: Among all the poets of this kind our English are much the best, by what I 
have yet seen, whether it be that we abound with more stories of this nature, or that 
the genius of our country is fitter for this sort of poetiy. For the English are naturally 
fanciful, and very often disposed by that gloominess and melancholy of temper, 
which is so frequent in our nation, to many wild notions and visions, to which others 
are not so liable. Addison, Sped. No. 419. 

1711: I can readily allow to our British genius what was allowed to the Roman here- 
tofore, Natura sublimis et acer: Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet. ("By 
nature full of elevation and passion; for he has tragic inspiration enough and happy 
boldness." — Hor., Epist. II.) Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Vol. I, p. 316. 

1690: I can say very impartially that I have not observed among any so much true 
genius as among the English. 

Sir William Temple, Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 105. 

1667: And it is a good sign that nature will reveal more of its secrets to the English 



APPENDIX I 105 

than to others, because it has already furnished them with a genius so well propor- 
tioned for the receiving and retaining its mysteries. 

Thomas Sprat, Life and Writings of Cowley, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II, p. 119. 

Conjectures (p. 64): Consider in those ancients what is it the world 
admires? Not the fewness of their faults, but the number and bright- 
ness of their beauties; and if Shakespeare is their equal (as he doubtless 
is) in that which in them is admired, then is Shakespeare as great as 
they; ... A giant loses nothing of his size though he should chance to 
trip in his race. 

1753: If an apology should be deemed necessary for the freedom here used with our 
inimitable bard [Milton], let me conclude in the words of Longinus: "Whoever was 
careful to collect the blemishes of Homer, Demosthenes, Plato, and of other cele- 
brated writers of the same rank, would find they bore not the least proportion to the 
sublimities and excellencies with which their works abound." 

The Adventurer, No. 101. 

1721: I could not but conclude that with all their faults they [his works] were not 
altogether deprived of that noble fire, which alone can make them pleasing. 

Dennis, Letters, Vol. I, p. 85. 

1721: Wherever genius runs through a work, I forgive its faults, and wherever that is 
wanting, no beauties can touch me. Dennis, Letters, Vol. II, p. 292. 

1715-26: Exact disposition, just thought, correct elocution, polished numbers, may 
have been found in a thousand; but the poetical fire, this vivida vis animi, in a very 
few. Even in a work where all those are imperfect or neglected, this can overpower 
criticism, and make us admire even while we disapprove. Nay, where this appears, 
though attended with absurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we see 
nothing but its own splendor. This fire is discerned in Virgil, but discerned as through 
a glass, reflected from Homer. ... In Milton it glows like a furnace up to an uncom- 
mon ardor, by the force of art : in Shakespeare it strikes before we are aware, like an 
accidental fire from heaven. Pope, Homer, preface. 

1713: The truth of it is, there can be no more a perfect work in the world than a 
perfect man. To say of a celebrated piece that there are faults in it, is in effect to say 
no more than that the author of it was a man. For this reason I consider every critic 
that attacks an author in high reputation, as the slave in the Roman triumph, who 
was to call out to the conqueror, "Remember, sir, that you are a man." I speak 
this in relation to the following letter, which criticises the works of a great poet whose 
very faults have more beauty in them than the most elaborate compositions of many 
more correct writers. . .- Addison, Guardian, No. 110. 

1712: I must also observe with Longinus that the production of a great genius, with 
many lapses and inadvertencies, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior 
kind of author, which are scrupulously exact and conformable to all the rules of correct 
writing. _ Addison, Spectator, No. 281. 

1712: A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to 
discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things 
as are worth their observation. Addison, Spectator, No. 291. 



106 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

250 ca. : Now as regards the manifestations of the sublime in literature, ... it is fitting 
to observe at once that, though writers of this magnitude are far removed from fault- 
lessness, they none the less all rise above what is mortal; that all other qualities prove 
their possessors to be men, but sublimity raises them near the majesty of God; and 
that while immunity from errors relieves from censure, it is grandeur that excites 
admiration. What need to add thereto that each of these supreme authors often 
redeems all his failures by a single sublime and happy touch, and (most important of 
all) that if one were to pick out and mass together the blunders of Homer, Demosthenes, 
Plato, and all the rest of the greatest writers, they would be found to be a very small 
part, nay an infinitesimal fraction, of the triumphs which those heroes achieve on 
every hand. Longinus, On the Sublime, pp. 135 and 137. 

250 ca. : Is it not worth while, on this very point, to raise the general question whether 
we ought to give the preference, in poems and prose writings, to grandeur with some 
attendant faults, or to success which is moderate but altogether sound and free from 
error? Aye, and further, whether a great number of excellences, or excellences higher 
in quality, would in literature rightly bear away the palm?. . . . For my part, I 
am well aware that lofty genius is far removed from flawlessness; for invariable accur- 
acy incurs the risk of pettiness, and in the sublime, as in great fortunes, there must be 
something which is overlooked. It may be necessarily the case that low and average 
natures remain as a rule free from failing and in great safety because they never run 
a risk or seek to scale the heights, while great endowments prove insecure because 
of their very greatness. ... I have myself noted not a few errors on the part of 
Homer and other writers of the greatest distinction and, the slips they have made 
afford me anything but pleasure. Still I do not term them wilful errors, but rather 
oversights of a random and casual kind, due to neglect and introduced with all the 
heedlessness of genius. Consequently I do not waver in my view that excellences higher 
in quality, even if not sustained throughout, should always on a comparison be voted 
the first place, because of their sheer elevation of spirit if for no other reason, . . . 
Again: does Eratosthenes in the Erigone (a little poem which is altogether free from 
flaw) show himself a greater poet than Archilochus with the rich and disorderly abun- 
dance which follows in his train and with that outburst of the divine spirit within 
him which it is difficult to bring under the rules of law? 

Longinus, On the Sublime, pp. 127 and 129. 

Conjectures (p. 64) : Who knows if Shakespeare might not have thought 
less if he had read more? Who knows if he might not have labored 
under the load of Jonson's learning, as Enceladus under Aetna? His 
mighty genius, indeed, through the most mountainous oppression would 
have breathed out some of his inextinguishable fire; yet, possibly, he 
might not have risen up into that giant, that much more than common 
man, at which we now gaze with amazement and delight. 

1754: When all our hopes and fears are confined within this narrow scene, . . . 
what demi-gods does it make our superiors, who can bestow what we most value! 
We tremble before them. Young, Vol. II, p. 475. 

1711 : Among great geniuses those few draw the admiration of all the world upon them 
and stand as the prodigies of mankind who by mere strength of natural parts and 



APPENDIX I 



107 



without any assistance of art or learning have produced works that were the delight 
of their own times, and the wonder of posterity. Addison, Spectator, No. 160. 

Conjectures (p. 64): Shakespeare . . . was master of two books, un- 
known to many of the profoundly read, though books, which the last 
conflagration alone can destroy; the books of nature and that of man. 
These he had by heart, and has transcribed many admirable pages of 
them into his immortal works. These are the fountain-head whence 
the Castalian streams of original composition flow; 

1756: Wit and satire are transitory and perishable, but nature and passion are eternal. 
Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 330. 

1753: The natural is as strong an evidence of true genius as the sublime. 

The Adventurer, No. 80. 

1742-45: Sprinkled with dews from the Castalian font. Young, Vol. I, p. 152. 

1667: To begin, then, with Shakespeare. He was the man who of all modern, and 
perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the images 
of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily; 
when he describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse 
him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation; he was naturally 
learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and 
found her there. Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, pp. 79 f. 

Conjectures (p. 65): As what comes from the writer's heart reaches ours; 
so what comes from his head, sets our brains at work, and our hearts at 
ease. 

1754: If the Fairy Queen be destitute of that arrangement and economy which epic 
severity requires, yet we scarcely regret the loss of these, while their place is so amply 
supplied by something which more powerfully attracts us: something which engages 
the affections, the feelings of the heart, rather than the cold approbation of the head. 
Thomas Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen, Vol. I, p. 23. 

Conjectures (p. 66) : As his celebrated Cato, few tears are shed, but Cato's 
own; which, indeed, are truly great, but uneffecting, except to the noble 
few, who love their country better than themselves. 

1726: When no distinction, where distinction's due, 
Marks from the many the superior few. 

Dodington, Young's Works, Vol. II, p. 77. 

1685: . . . The private diversion of those happy few whom he used to charm with 
his company and honor with his friendship. 

Robert Wolesley, Preface to Valentinian, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 25. 

Conjectures (p. 67 f .) : That is, where art has taken great pains to labor 
undramatic matter into dramatic life; which is impossible. However, 
as it is, like Pygmalion, we cannot but fall in love with it, and wish it 
was alive. How would a Shakespeare or an Otwav have answered our 



108 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

wishes? They would have outdone Prometheus, and, with their heaven- 
ly fire, have given him not only life, but immortality. 

1754: His paintings have beauties unborrowed from the pencil; and his statues in 
his eyes appear, like Pygmalion's, to live; though mere marble in theirs. His all- 
animating joy within gives graces to art and smiles to nature, invisible to common 
eyes. Young, Vol. II, p. 460. 

1753: The flame of his genius in other parts, though somewhat dimmed by time, is 
not totally eclipsed. The Adventurer, No. 58. 

1742-45: I'll try if I can pluck thee from thy rock, 
Prometheus ! from this barren ball of earth : 
If reason can unchain thee, thou art free. Young, Vol. I, p. 162. 

1742-45: Come, my Prometheus, from thy pointed rock 
Of false ambition, if unclaimed, we'll mount; 
We'll innocently steal celestial fire. 
And kindle our devotion at the stars; 
A theft that shall not chain, but set thee free. Young, Vol. I, p. 200. 

1742-45: Speech ventilates our intellectual fire. Young, Vol. I, p. 25. 

1685: True genius, like the anima mundi which some of the ancients believed will 
enter into the hardest and driest thing, enrich the most barren soil, and inform the 
meanest and most uncomely matter; nothing within the vast immensity of nature is 
so devoid of grace or so remote from sense but will obey the formings of his plastic 
heat and feel the operations of his vivifying power, which, when it pleases, can enliven 
the deadest lump, beautify the vilest dirt, and sweeten the most offensive filth; this is 
a spirit that blows where it lists, and like the philosopher's stone converts into itself 
whatsoever it touches. Nay, the baser, the emptier, the obscurer, the fouler, and 
less susceptible of ornament the subject appears to be, the more is the poet's praise 
who can infuse dignity and breathe beauty upon it, who can hide all the natural 
deformities in the fashion of his dress, supply all the wants with his own plenty, and 
by a poetical daemonianism possess it with the spirit of good sense and gracefulness, 
or who, as Horace says of Homer, can fetch light out of smoke, roses out of dunghills, 
and give a kind of life to the inanimate, by the force of that divine and supernatural 
virtue which, if we will believe Ovid, is the gift of all who are truly poets: 

Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo, 

Sedibus aetheriis spiritus ille venit. 
Robert Wolesley, Preface to Valentinian, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 16. 

Conjectures (p. 68): To close our thoughts on Cato: he who sees not 
much beauty in it, has no taste for poetry; he who sees nothing else, has 
no taste for the stage. While it justifies censure, it extorts applause. 
It is much to be admired, but little to be felt. 

1756: A stroke of nature is, in my opinion, worth a hundred such thoughts as, 
"When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, 
The post of honor is a private station." 
Cato is a fine dialogue on liberty, and the love of one's country; but considered 



APPENDIX I 109 

as a dramatic performance, nay, as a model of a just tragedy, as some have affectually 
represented it, it must be owned to want action and pathos; the two hinges, I presume, 
on which a just tragedy ought necessarily to turn, and without it cannot subsist. 
Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 257. 

1685: For as nothing is more disagreeable either in verse or prose than a slovenly 
looseness of style, so on the other hand too nice a correctness will be apt to deaden the 
life, and make the piece too stiff. 

Robert Wolesley, Preface to Valentinian, ed. Spingarn, Vol. Ill, p. 8. 

Conjectures (p. 68 f .) : Swift is a singular wit, Pope a correct poet, Addison 
a great author. 

1756: Pope owed much to Walsh: it was he who gave him a very important piece of 
advice in his early youth; for he used to tell our author, that there was one way still 
left open for him, by which he might excel any of his predecessors, which was, by 
correctness; that though, indeed, we had several great poets, we as yet could boast of 
none that were perfectly correct, and that, therefore, he advised him to make this 
quality his particular study. 

Joseph Warton, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 195. 

Conjectures (p. 73): A truth which in such an age of authors should not 
be forgotten. 

1753: The present age, if we consider chiefly the state of our own country, may be 
styled with great propriety the Age of Authors; for, perhaps, there never was a time in 
which men of all degrees of ability, of every kind of education,of every profession and 
employment, were posting with ardor so general to the press. 

The Adventurer, No. 115. 



APPENDIX II 

The " Conjectures" Compared with their Parallels in Subsequent 
German Literature 

Under this heading the reader will find many passages from Young's 
Conjectures collated with a number of striking later parallels in German 
literature. Those German passages whose indebtedness to the Conjec- 
tures can be definitely established, as well as those which can be proved 
to have come from other sources, are discussed in Chapter IV. Those, 
finally, which can not be traced to the Conjectures or to other sources 
are here given. They are arranged in a chronological order after the 
passages to which they bear resemblance. While the origin of this 
third category remains a matter of speculation, the following compila- 
tion is offered to give at least a convenient survey of the circumstances 
in question. 

Conjectures (p. 64): Consider, in those ancients, what is it the world 
admires? Not the fewness of their faults, but the number and bright- 
ness of their beauties; and if Shakespeare is their equal (as he doubtless 
is) in that which in them is admired, then is Shakespeare as great as 
they; — a giant loses nothing of his size though he should chance to trip 
in his race. 

1759: Die Giite eines Werkes beruht nicht auf einzelnen Schonheiten; diese einzelnen 
Schonheiten miissen ein schones Ganzes ausmachen, oder der Kenner kann sie nicht 
anders als mit einem ziirnenden Miszvergnugen lesen. Nur wenn das Ganze untadel- 
haft befunden wird, musz der Kunstrichter von einer nachteiligen Zergliederung 
abstehen und das Werk so, wie der Philosoph die Welt, betrachten. 

Lessing, Vol. VIII, p. 39. 

1761 : Es ist garnicht die Rede, ob ein Meisterstiick Fehler habe, sondern wo die Fehler 
liegen und wie sie angebracht sind. Jeder vernunftige Autor weiss seine Fehler zum 
voraus, er weiss ihnen aber die rechte Stelle zu geben, wo sie wie der Schatten im 
Gemalde sich verlieren und abstechen. Hamann, Vol. Ill, p. 97. 

1768: Dieses Stuck ist ohnstreitig eines von unsern betrachtlichsten Schonheiten, die 
genugsam zeigen, dass die Fehler, mit welchen sie verwebt sind, zu vermeiden im 
geringsten nicht iiber die Krafte des Dichters gewesen ware, wenn er sich diese Krafte 
nur selbst hatte zutrauen wollen. Lessing, Vol. X, p. 95. 

Conjectures (p. 48) : Must we then, you say, not imitate ancient authors? 
Imitate them, by all means; but imitate aright. He that imitates the 
divine Illiad does not imitate Homer, but he that takes the same method 
which Homer took, for arriving at a capacity of accomplishing a work so 
great. Tread in his steps to the sole fountain of immortality: drink 
where he drank, at the true Helicon, that is, at the breast of nature. 



APPENDIX II 111 

1766: Wenn man sagt, der Kiinstler ahme dem Dichter, oder der Dichter ahme dem 
Kiinstler nach, so kann dieses zweierlei bedeuten : entweder der eine macht das Werk 
des andern zu dem wirklichen Gegenstande seiner Nachahmung, oder sie haben beide 
einerlei Gegenstande der Nachahmung, und der eine entlehnt von dem andern die Art 
und Weise, es nachzuahmen. . . . Bei der ersten Nachahmung ist der Dichter 
Original, bei der andern ist er Kopist. Jene ist ein Teil der allgemeinen Nachahmung 
welche das Wesen seiner Kunst ausmacht, und er arbeitet als Genie, sein Vorwurf 
mag ein Werk anderer Kiinste oder der Natur sein. Diese hingegen setzt ihn ganzlich 
von seiner Wiirde herab; anstatt der Dinge selbst ahmt er ihre Nachahmungen nach 
und gibt uns kalte Erinnerungen von Zugen eines fremden Genies fur urspriingliche 
Ziige seines eigenen. Lessing, Vol. IX, pp. 50 f. 

1767: Aber Theokrit kann er nicht sein. Im Geist der Idyllen muss er nicht unser 
Lehrer, unser Original, und noch weniger unser einziges Original sein! . . . Zuerst 
wurden dadurch bios arme, trockene Nachahmungen erzeugt, anstatt dass aus Theo- 
krit noch neben ihm Originale gebildet werden konnen, die eine neue und eigentumliche 
Art der Verschonerung nach dem Geschmack unsrer Zeit haben konnen, wenn sie 
Genies sind. Die Natur, der Theokrit naher ist, kann als eine Mutter mit vielen 
Briisten noch viele Geister tranken, und wer trinkt nicht lieber us der Quelle, als aus 
einem Bach? Herder, Vol. I, p. 349. 

1767: Aber nachahmen, um den Ton eines Alten zu lernen? Diese Nachahmung ist 
schon hoher und eine Arbeit des Geistes. Wenn man einen Autor mit dem Feuer 
liest, mit dem er geschrieben hat, so muss er uns so beseelen, dass wir eine Zeitlang 
gleichsam verziickt in seine Sphare der Gedanken sind : sein Ton schallt noch in unsern 
Ohren; wir sehen mit seinen Augen; wir atmen in seiner Denkart wie in unserem Ele- 
mente: die Seite der poetischen Empfindung tont in uns, erweckt von der seinigen, mit 
ihr zusammen: die Worte formen sich nach der Wendung seines Geistes: wir lesen 
usque scribendi solicitudinem — und schreiben. Nun lebt noch seine Sprache in uns; 
sein Ritmus tont noch in unserm Ohr: die Reihe seiner Bilder steht vor unserm Auge: 
wir ahmen in seiner Sprache, in seinem Silbenmass, in seiner Komposition der Gemalde 
nach, und zeigen uns also als Vituosen. . . . sein Feuer facht unsern Geist an, wir 
schaffen in seine Bilder neue Ziige, und pragen seine Ideen um, wir bilden uns nach 
seiner Form neue Figuren, ein Ausdruck gelingt uns vor ihm; eine Wendung glanzt 
hervor; ein Gleichnis malen wir besser aus, — wir werden mehr als Nachahmer, wir 
werden Nacheiferer. Herder, Vol. I, p. 408. 

1767: Wir, die wir die Werke der Alten mit Recht verehren, da wir sie so vortrefflich 
finden, ahmen vielleicht mehr die Copien der Natur, als die Natur selbst nach. Viel- 
leicht folgen wir nicht sowohl dem idealisch Schonen in unserm Verstande als dem schon 
vorhandenen in den Werken der Alten. Gellert, Vol. X, p. 68. 

1767: Wir konnen ungerecht gegen die Natur, gegen uns selber werden, wenn wir 
unsern eigenen Geist verdrangen, um den ihrigen mit ungeschickter Hand an seine 
Stelle zu setzen. . . . Wir miissen es also nicht genug sein lassen, nur die Alten 
nachzuahmen. Die Natur war ihre Lehrmeisterin; und so soil sie auch die unsrige 
sein! Wir miissen es nicht bios den Alten gleich tun wollen und ihnen nur Schritt 
vor Schritt folgen, wir werden sonst eben deswegen unter ihnen bleiben. Wir haben 



112 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

mehr zu wagen. Sie zu ubertreffen sei unser Ziel, wenn wir es auch nie erreichen; 
auf diese Art werden wir ihnen wenigstens gleichen. Gellert, Vol. X, pp. 79 f. 

1768: Nacheiferer wecke man, nicht Nachahmer. Je besser die Alten erkannt, um 
so weniger gepliindert: desto gliicklicher nachgebildet, desto eher erreicht. Und das 
endlich ist kopierendes Original, wo keine Kopie sichtbar ist, wo man sich an einem 
Nationalautor zum griechischen Schriftsteller seiner Nation und Sprache schafft: wer 
dies ist, der schreibt jiir seine Literatiir. Herder, Vol. II, p. 162. 

1769: Einen nachahmen heisst, wie ich glaube, den Gegenstand, das Werk des andern 
nachmachen; einem nachahmen aber, die Art und Weise von dem andern entlehnen, 
diesen oder einen ahnlichen Gegenstand zu behandeln. Herder, Vol. Ill, p. 83. 

1775: Man wird nicht leugnen konnen, dass die eifrige Nachahmung der Alten mehren- 
teils ein Weg zur Trockenheit werden kann, zu welcher die Nachahmung der Natur 
nicht leicht verleiten wird. Winkelmann, Vol. I, p. 87. 

Conjectures (p. 49) : Too great awe for them [the ancients] lays genius 
under restraint. 

1766: Ich verehre die Alten, aber ich mag meine Empfindungen nicht von ihnen ein- 
schranken lassen. Ist der Neuere ein Mann von Genie? Gut! Er hat ein Recht 
auf meine Ehrerbietung. Schleswigsche Literaturbriefe, p. 15. 

1767: Es ist wahr, dass uns die Meisterstiicke der Alten und die Regeln der Kunst 
grosse Vorteile bringen; doch wer weiss, ob sie nicht auf gewisse Weise selbst Ursache 
sind, dass wir den Alten in unsern Gedichten so weit nachstehen; dass wir gezwungener 
und miihsamer sind als sie? Gellert, Vol. X, p. 68. 

Conjectures (pp. 51 and 48): The classics are forever our rightful and 
revered masters in composition, — when a master is wanted. — Let us be 
as far from neglecting as from copying their admirable compositions. 
— Let our understandings feed on theirs. They afford the noblest 
nourishment. But let them nourish, not annihilate, our own. When we 
read, let our imagination kindle at their charms. When we write, let 
our judgments shut them out of our thoughts. 

1767: Die Alten sind allerdings unsere Lehrmeister in den schonen Wissenschaften. 
Wir wollen also dankbar sein und von ihnen lernen; . . . ihre Absicht bei ihren 
Werken erforschen und sie darnach priifen; ihre Schonheiten bemerken, fuhlen, bewun- 
dern, auswendig behalten, annehmen. Wir wollen uns durch ihren Geist erhitzen 
und beleben, und durch ihren Geschmack den unsrigen verbessern. Aber konnen wir 
nicht zu dankbar, nicht auf eine ungereimte Art dankbar sein? Ja, wenn wir sie zu 
knechtisch nachahmen. Gellert, Vol. X, p. 79. 

Conjectures (p. 53) : And since copies surpass not their originals, as streams 
rise not higher than their spring, rarely so high; hence, while arts mechanic 
are in perpetual progress, and increase, the liberal are in retrogradation 
and decay. 

1775: . . . das Wasser im Abgang nie hoher springt als in seiner Quelle. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 316. 



APPENDIX II 113 

1778: . . . denn kein Abflusz springt hoher als seine Quelle. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 214. 

Conjectures (p. 49 f.): Learning, destitute of this superior aid, is fond and 
proud of what has cost it much pains; it is a great lover of rules, and 
boaster of famed examples. As beauties less perfect, who owe half 
their charms to cautious art, learning inveighs against natural, unstudied 
graces and small, harmless indecorums, and sets rigid bounds to that 
liberty to which genius often owes its supreme glory. 

1763: Ebenso muss ein Genie sich herablassen, Regeln zu erschuttern; sonst bleiben 
sie Wasser; und man muss der erste sein, hereinzusteigen, nachdem das Wasser bewegt 
wird, wenn man die Wirkung und Kraft der Regeln selbst erleben will. 

Hamann, Vol. II, p. 430. 

1763: O ihr Herolde allgemeiner Regeln! wie wenig versteht ihr die Kunst, und wie 
wenig besitzt ihr von dem Genie, das die Muster hervorgebracht hat, auf welchen ihr 
sie baut, und das sie iibertreten kann, so oft es ihm beliebt! 

Hamann, Vol. II, p. 431. 

1763: Ohne Selbstverleugnung ist kein Werk des Genies moglich, und ohne Ver- 
leugnung der besten Anmerkungen, Regeln und Gesetze kein Schuldrama noch Urbild 
desselben. Hamann, Vol. II, p. 432. 

1766: Aber wahre Genies finden sich notwendig beleidigt, wenn man sie mit korrecten 
witzigen Kopfen in gleichem Paare gehen lasst, oder sie gar unter die letztern erniedrigt. 

Schleswigsche Literaturbriefe, p. 176. 

1767: Nun urteile man, ob der ganze Corneille seinen Stoff mehr als ein Genie, oder 
als ein witziger Kopf bearbeitet habe. Es bedarf zu dieser Beurteilung weiter nichts, 
als die Anwendung eines Satzes, den niemand in Zweifel zieht: das Genie liebt Einfall, 
der Witz, Verwickelung. Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 309. 

1767: . . . und ihre Empfindung wird sie auf manchen Handgriff leiten, der ihrer 
blossen Spekulation wohl unentdeckt geblieben ware, den noch kein Kritiker zur Regel 
generalisiert hat, ob er es schon verdiente, und der ofters mehr Wahrheit, mehr Leben 
in ihr Stuck bringen wird, als all die mechanischen Gesetze, mit denen sich kahle 
Kunstrichter herumschlagen, und deren Beobachtung sie lieber, dem Genie zum 
Trotze, zur einzigen Quelle der Vollkommenheit eines Dramas machen mochten. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 322. 

1767: Dem Genie ist es vergonnt, tausend Dinge nicht zu wissen, die jeder Schulknabe 
weiss; nicht der erworbene Vorrat seines Gedachtnisses, sondern das, was er aus sich 
selbst, aus seinem eigenen Gefiihl hervorzubringen vermag, macht seinen Reichtum 
aus; . . . er verstosst also, bald aus Sicherheit, bald aus Stolz, bald mit, bald ohne 
Vorsatz, so oft, so groblich, dass wir anderen guten Leute uns nicht genug dariiber 
wundern konnen; . . . alles, was wir besser wissen als er, beweist bios, dass wir 
fleissiger zur Schule gegangen sind als er; und das halten wir leider ftir no tig, wenn wir 
nicht vollkommene Dummkopfe bleiben wollen. Lessing, Vol. IX, pp. 324 f. 

1767: Genug, dass mich dieser Zwitter mehr vergnugt, mehr erbaut, als die gesetz- 
massigsten Geburten eurer korrekten Racines, oder wie sie sonst heissen. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 390. 



114 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1768: Und ist dies, so werde die nachahmungslose, feurige Begeisterung des Dithyram- 
ben Vorbild : denn bei uns ist leider selbst die schone Unordnung des Horaz zura abge- 
zirkelten Gesetz geworden. Die Einbildungskraft, von einem wurdigen, reichen 
Gegenstande aufgefordert, von Musik und Sprache geleitet : diese poetische Phantasie 
geht, wenn sie sich einmal nicht rasende Ausschweifungen nuchtern vorsetzt, sie 
geht so sicher ihren himmlischen Sonnenweg, voll Glanz und Licht und Feuer, dass der 
kasteiende Fuhrmann nicht immer hinter ihr sein mag. Herder, Vol. II, p. 180. 

1774: Haben wir Genie, so konnen uns die Regeln viel nutzen; aber sie konnen uns die 
Anwendung nicht lehren. Diese kommt auf unsere Einsicht, auf unsern Geschmack 
an. Die Regeln konnen selbst ein Genie noch immer fehl fuhren. 

Gellert, Vol. VII, p. 118. 

1774: Mitten in der Arbeit konnen die Regeln, die wir zu sehr vor Augen haben, das 
Genie zuriickhalten. Das edle Feuer des Geistes, das zu dieser oder jener Stelle notig 
war, verfliegt, indem wir die Regel um Rat fragen. Wir halten den Geist in seiner 
Kuhnheit auf, weil wir unvorsichtig den Zugel riicken. Wir soil ten jetzt von unserm 
Gegenstande allein erfiillt sein, ihn allein denken und empfinden; wir sollten uns ver- 
gessen; und seht, die Furcht, einen Fehler zu begehen, die Begierde, der Regel zu 
folgen, stort uns in der glucklichsten Verwegenheit. Gellert, Vol. VII, p. 146. 

1775: Erkennen und emphnden, gesund erkennen und empfinden sollen wir, und das 
tut der gemeine Mann vielleicht mehr als der Gelehrte, der gesittete Wilde vielleicht 
mehr als der ungesittete Europaer, der Mensch von Anschauung und Ruhegeschaft 
vielleicht mehr als das leidenschaftsvolle, halbwahnwitzige Genie. Reiz und Salz 
gehoren zum Leben; aber es muss im Organismus, im Blut, in der Gesundheit liegen, 
nicht in zwickenden Leidenschaften oder spornenden Idolen: sonst Frisst es statt zu 
nahren. Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 312. 

Conjectures (p. 45): Originals are, and ought to be, great favorites, for 
they are great benefactors; they extend the republic of letters, and add 
a new province to its dominion. Imitators only give us a sort of dupli- 
cates of what we had, possibly much better, before. 

1766: Sie (die Deutschen) empfinden nach Regeln. . . . Immerhin mag die Imagina- 
tion an den berlihmtesten, niitzlichsten Erfindungen, deren die menschliche Gesell- 
schaft sich ruhmen kann, den wichtigsten Anteil nehmen: auf den deutschen Univer- 
sitaten, wo ihr der Rang in der Klasse der untern Seelenkrafte angewiesen ist, macht 
sie eine sehr schlechte Figur, und hier gilt keine Erfindung, die nicht durch die kom- 
binatorische Kunst, durch die syllogistische Kimst, durch die Bestimmungskunst 
hervorgebracht worden; edle Kunst der oberen Seelenvermogen, vor denen der gemeine 
Menschenverstand, der sich grosstenteils an den niedrigcrn oder untern begniigen muss, 
sich demiitig beugt, und an welche sich das Genie, das daher auch an diesen Orten 
wenig Verehrer findet, nur selten Anspruch machen darf. 

Schleswigsche Lileraturbriefe, p. 16. 

Conjectures (p. 48): All eminence, and distinction, lies out of the beaten 
road. 

1762: Denn, wer keine Ausnahme macht, kann kein Meisterstiick liefern. 

Hamann, Vol. II, p. 405. 



APPEDNIX II 115 

Conjectures (p. 54) : Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die 
copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to years of 
indiscretion (so let me speak) snatches the pen and blots out nature's 
mark of separation. 

1760: Ich habe dir schon bei einer andern Gelegenheit geschrieben, dass Nachahmen 
und Nachaffen nicht einerlei ist. Hamann, Vol. Ill, p. 3. 

1768: . . . bald andern Nationen nachgeafft, so dass Nachahmer beinahe zum Bei- 
wort und zur zvveiten Silbe unseres Namens geworden. Herder, Vol. II, p. 51. 

1772: . . . denn der Mensch ist unter alien Tieren der grosste Pantomim. 

Hamann, Vol. IV, p. 42. 

1775-' Q Kant: . . . das zu sehr modische Nachaffen verrat einen Menschen ohne 
Grundsatze. Schalpp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 200. 

1775-'90: Es besitzt zwar jeder (sagt Kant) etwas Eigentumliches, allein die gegen- 
wartigen Schulanstalten, wo alles zum Nachahmen genotigt wird, verhindern die 
Entwickelung des Genies. Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 165. 

Conjectures (p. 57): The writer who neglects those two rules above 
[Know thyself! — Reverence thyself!] will never stand alone; he makes 
one of a group, and thinks in wretched unanimity with the throng: 
incumbered with the notions of others, and impoverished by their 
abundance, he conceives not the least embryo of new thought; opens 
not the least vista through the gloom of ordinary writers, into the bright 
walks of rare imagination and singular design, while the true genius is 
crossing all public roads into fresh untrodden ground. 

1760: Kenner werden in jenen weder Genie noch Geschmack vermissen; und in diesen 
uberall den denkenden Kopf spiiren, der die alten Wege weiter bahnt, und neue 
Pfade durch unbekannte Gegenden zeichnet. Lessing, Vol. VIII, p. 276. 

1762: Wer Willkur und Phantasie den schonen Kiinsten entziehen will, stellt ihrer 
Ehre und ihrem Leben als ein Meuchelmorder nach und versteht keine andere Sprache 
der Leidenschaften als die der Heuchler. Hamann, Vol. II, p. 402. 

1765: . . . Der Mangel an starken und neuen Gedanken, die einen denkenden Geist 
so angenehm in den Schriften der Englander beschaftigen. 

Lessing, Vol. VIII, p. 281. 

1767: Der Inhalt ist von des Dichters eigener Erfindung. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 260. 

1767: . . . das kuhne Genie durchstosst das so beschwerliche Zeremoniel: findet und 
sucht sich Idiotismen; grabt in die Eingeweide der Sprache, wie in die Bergkliifte, 
um Gold zu finden. Herder, Vol. I, p. 166. 

1767: . . . und wenn zehn feige Kunstrichter zitterten, und Einwiirfe machten, und 
Bollwerke bauten, und Schlingen legten: so fuhle ichs doch, dass alle ihre Warnungen 
zu klein sind, um ein Genie zittern zu machen: grossmiitig wiirde es sie verachten, 



116 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

und sehr gerne eine Ausnahme machen, wenn seine Ausnahme nur Meisterstiick ist. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 474. 

1775: Zum Kopieren, [sagt Kant], gehort nur Talent, denn alle diese Stiicke konnen 
nicht durch Unterweisung erlangt werden. Genies sind selten, d.h. nicht alle Tage 
wird etwas erfunden. . . . Mittelmassiges Genie ist eine Kontradiktion, dieses ist 
alsdann nur ein Talent. Genie muss immer etwas Ausserordentliches sein. Genie 
ist nicht unter dem Zwange der Regel, sondern ein Muster der Regel. Weil aber doch 
alles, was hervorgebracht wird, regelmassig sein muss, so muss das Genie der Regel 
gemass sein; ist es der Regel nicht gemass, so muss aus ihm selbst eine Regel gemacht 
werden konnen, und dann wird es zum Muster. 

Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, p. 128. 

Conjectures (p. 60): Imitation is inferiority confessed; emulation is superi- 
ority contested, or denied; imitation is servile, emulation generous; 
that fetters, this fires; that may give a name, this, a name immortal. 
This made Athens to succeeding ages the rule of taste, and the standard 
of perfection. Her men struck fire against each other, and kindled, by 
conflict, into glories no time shall extinguish. 

1767: Ist man selbst Genie, so kann man durch Proben die Meiste Aufmunterungen 
geben, und den schlafenden Funken tief aus der Asche herausholen, wo ihn der andere 
nicht sieht. Man wird audi eher auf die Hindernisse dringen, die das Genie und den 
Erfindungsgeist aufhalten, weil man sie aus eigener Erfahrung kennt. Und endlich 
wird man nun den Toren am besten die Originalsucht ausreden konnen, wenn man mit 
der grossen Stimme des Beispiels sie zuriickscheucht. Herder, Vol. I, p. 256. 

1767: Wie wiirde ich mich freuen, wenn etwa ein Genie, indem es dies lase, erwachte, 
sich fuhlte, seine Schwingen wiegte, um von ihnen den Staub der Systeme abzu 
schutteln, und alsdenn seinen Flug zur Sonne nahme. Herder, Vol. I, p. 476. 

1768: Genies will ich wecken, Leser lehren, nicht Kunstrichtern geniigen! 

Herder, Vol. II, p. 280. 

1775: Auch hier entdeckt nur Seele die Seele: nur ein Genie kann das andre verstehen, 
reizen und ahnden. Meistens sinds erfahrungsvolle, stille, neidlose Greise, die solch 
einen Jungling, verloren in sich selbst, bemerken und ihm das Hoffnungs- und Trost- 
wort zurufen: verehre dich selber! Sie werfen die Glutkohle sorglos neben ihn hin 
"Er wird werden!" sie fallt aber in Jiinglings Seele und ziindet und wird ihn noch 
spat befeuern. Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 327. 

1775-'90: Nichts aber schadet dem Genie mehr [sagt Kant] als die Nachahmung, wenn 
man glaubt, dass man die Asthetik lernt, man danach zuschneiden durfe. Dies 
geschieht leider in den Schulen, und man kann sicher behaupten, dass der Mangel 
an Genie zu unsern Zeiten bios aus den Schulen herriihre, wo man Kindern Regeln 
zu Briefen, Chrien, etc., vorschreibt." Schlapp, Kants Lehre vom Genie, 203. 

Conjectures (p. 51): Of genius there are two species, an earlier and a 
later; or call them infantine and adult. An adult genius comes out 
nature's hand as Pallas out of Jove's head, at full growth and mature. 
Shakespeare's genius was of this kind. On the contrary, Swift stumbled 



APPENDIX II 117 

at the threshold, and set out for distinction on feeble knees. His was an 
infantine genius; a genius which, like other infants, must be nursed and 
educated, or it will come to nought. Learning is its nurse and tutor. 

1766: Nun ist aber die Muse unseres Sangers eine Tochter der Kunst, nicht der 
schopferischen Natur. Herder, Vol. IV, p. 253. 

1766: Der wahre Geschmack ist ein einziger und wird in eben der Bedeutung ange- 
boren, wie das Genie. Schleswigsche Liter aturbriefe, p. 3. 

1767: Aber es tritt ein Genie auf, wie Pallas aus dem Gehirn des Jupiters. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 275. 

1774: . . . es wird Genie, es wird eine gewisse natiirliche Grosse und Lebhaftigkeit 
der Seele erfordert, die den Menschen zu alien grossen Unternehmungen begeistern 
muss. Allein, was vermag das beste Genie ohne Unterricht, ohne Kunst, ohne Ubung? 

Gellert, Vol. VII, p. 33. 

1775: Wie sich auch Geschmack und Genie feiner brechen mogen: so weiss jeder, dass 
Genie im allgemeinen eine Menge in- oder extensif strebender Seelenkrafte sei; Ge- 
schmack ist Ordnung in dieser Menge, Proportion, und also schone Qualitat jener 
strebenden Grosse. . . . Genie ist eine Sammlung von Naturkraf ten : es kommt also 
auch aus den Handen der Natur und muss vorausgehen, ehe Geschmack werden kann. 

Herder, Vol. V, p. 600 f. 

Conjectures (p. 50 f.): Sacer nobis inest deus, says Seneca. With regard 
to the moral world, conscience, with regard to the intellectual, genius, 
is that god within. Genius can set us right in composition without the 
rules of the learned; as conscience sets us right in life without the laws 
of the land. 

1767: Der wahre Kunstrichter folgert keine Regeln aus seinem Geschmacke, sondern 
hat seinen Geschmack nach den Regeln gebildet, welche die Natur der Sache erfordert. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 261. 

1774: So stelle ich mir die Resultate meiner Untersuchung so gross und niitzlich vor, 
dass ich mir nur den Genius zum Leiter und zur Muse meiner Betrachtungen wiinschte, 
der Genius des menschlichen Geschlechts in alien seinen Zustanden war, und unsichtbar 
den Faden der Entwicklung seiner Krafte und Neigungen leitet . . . , noch leitet, und 
allein ganz iibersieht. Herder, Vol. V, pp. 589 f. 

1775: Das Genie ist ein solcher Funke von Gottlichkeit, dass selbst auf falschem Wege, 
in tiblem Geschmacke, er nur von Kraften des Genies und nicht von Regeln anders- 
wohin gelockt werden will. Herder, Vol. V, p. 606. 

Conjectures (pp. 50 and 61): Pindar, who . . . boasted of his no- 
learning, calling himself the eagle, for his flight above it. . . . with a 
more than eagle's eye saw and pointed out blank spaces . . . Genius 
often then deserves most to be praised when it is most sure to be con- 
demned; that is, when its excellence, from mounting high, to weak eyes 
is quite out of sight. 



118 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1765: Die Einsichten des Verfassers scheinen mir, wie sein Stil, mehr ausgedehnt als 
tief zu sein. . . . Aber ich habe keinen Adlersblick, keinen Sonnenflug, nichts von 
dem hohen Geruche des Konigs unter den Vogeln in der ganzen Abhandlung wahrge- 
nommen. Hamann, Vol. Ill, p. 339. 

1769: Hoch wie des Adlers Sonnenflug. Herder, Vol. Ill, p. 324. 

Conjectures (p. 52) : Genius is from heaven, learning from man. . . . Learning 
is borrowed knowledge; genius is knowledge innate and quite our own. 
1763: . . . der poetische Geist, eine Gabe des Himmels; bildet sich aber so wenig, 
wie dieser, von sich selbst und wiirde ohne Lehre und Unterricht leer und tot bleiben. 

Winkelmann, Vol. I, pp. 238 f. 

1767: Die Fiirsicht sendet sie [d. Kunst] mitleidig auf die Erde, 
Zum Besten des Barbaren, damit er menschlich werde; 
Weiht sie. die Lehrerin der Konige zu sein, 
Mit Wiirde, mit Genie, mit Feuer vom Himmel ein. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 207. 

1778: Wer das zarte Saitenspiel junger Kinder und Knaben zu behorchen, wer nur 
in ihrem Gesicht zu lesen weiss: welche Bemerkungen von Genie und Charakter, d. i. 
einzelner Menschenart wird er machen! Es klingen leise Tone, die gleichsam aus 
einer andern Welt zu kommen scheinen: hie und da regt sich ein Zug von Nachdenken, 
Leidenschaft, Empfindung, der eine ganze Welt schlafender Krafte, einen ganzen 
lebendigen Menschen weissagt, und es ist, diinkt mich, die platteste Meinung, die je 
in einen Papierkopf gekommen, dass alle menschlichen Seelen gleich, dass sie alle als 
platte, leere Tafeln auf die Welt kommen. Keine zwei Sandkorner sind einander 
gleich, geschweige solche reinen Keime und Abgriinde von Kraften, als zwei Menschen- 
seelen, oder ich hatte von dem Wort Menschenseele gar keinen Gedanken. Auch 
das Leibnitzische Gleichnis von Marmorstucken, in denen der Umriss zur kiinftigen 
Bildsaule schon da liegt, diinkt mir noch zu wenig, wenigstens zu tot. Im Kinde ist 
ein Quell von mancherlei Leben, nur noch mit Duft und Leben bedeckt. Eine Knospe, 
in der der ganze Baum, die ganze Blume eingehullt bluht. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, pp. 226 f. 

Conjectures (p. 64) : Who knows if Shakespeare might not have thought 
less if he had read more? — His mighty genius indeed through the most 
mountainous oppression would have breathed out some of his inex- 
tinguishable fire; yet possibly he might not have risen up into that giant, 
that much more than common man, at which we now gaze with amaze- 
ment and delight. 

1765-66: Herolde werden sich immer finden, Genies werden sich immer eine Bahn 
brechen und siegen. Herder, Vol. I, p. 120. 

1767: . . . und wenn Homer "summa vis, et quasi mensura ingenii humani" ist, so 
wird der, so ihn noch beurteilen and tadeln kann, ein volliger t)bermensch, hervorragend 
uber die Schranken des menschlichen Geistes. Herder, Vol. Ill, p. 202. 

1768: Die Charaktere im Ugolino sind alle stark und oft recht mit Shakespearisch 
wildem Feuer gezeichnet. Herder, Vol. IV, p. 312. 



APPENDIX II 1 19 

Conjectures (p. 57): This is the difference between those two luminaries 
in literature, the well-accomplished scholar and the divinely-inspired 
enthusiast; the first is as the bright morning star; the second as the 
rising sun. 

1767: Ich setze das Kennzeichen des poetischen Genies in die Illusion einer hohern 
Eingebung. Um diese Illusion hervorzubringen, sage ich, muss der Dichter die beo- 
bachteten Gegenstande bildlich denken, und mit Wirkung ausdriicken konnen, welches 
zusammen ich unter Nachbildung begreife. Schleswigsche Literaturbriefe, p. 225. 

1767: Pindars Gang ist der Schritt der begeisterten Einbildungskraft, die, was sie 
sieht, und wie sie es sieht, singt; aber die Ordnung der philosophischen Methode, oder 
der Vernunft ist der entgegengesetzte Weg, da man, was man denkt, aus dem, was man 
sieht, beweiset. Herder, Vol. I, p. 325. 

1773: . . . der Messias voll der unmittelbarsten Empfindung und einer Einbildung, 
die sich oft der Inspiration nahert. Herder, Vol. V, p. 258. 

1774: Dichtkunst, sie ist urspriinglich Theologie gewesen, und die edelste, hochste 
Dichtkunst wird wie die Tonkunst ihrem Wesen nach immer Theologie bleiben. 
Sanger und Propheten, die erhabensten Dichter des Alten Testaments schopften 
Flammen aus heiligem Feuer. Die altesten ehrwiirdigsten Dichter des Heidentums — 
sangen die Gotter und beseligten die Welt. Was die Miltons und Klopstocks, Fenelons 
und Racine in ihren reinsten Sonnenaugenblicken empfunden, war Religion, war nur 
Nachhall gotdicher Stimme in der Natur und Schrift! Die erhabenste und zer- 
schmelzendste Beredsamkeit Bossuets und Fenelons, die starkste Gedankenseele Pas- 
cals und die sanf teste Empfindungshelle Fenelons und die treue " Herzenssprache 
Luthers und die einfaltige ruhige Wiirde Spaldings und die engelzarte Vorempfindung 
des Engels in uns, bei meinem Freunde Lavater und wiederum die dunkle Fleburg- 
hohe Young's im Trompetenklange der Mittemacht — Religion! Religion! ferner Nach- 
hall und Nachklang der Offenbarung! — und o Quelle, was liegen in dir noch fiir Strome! 

Herder, Vol. VII, p. 300. 

1775: Ein Mensch aber fiihle Wahrheit mit inniger Empfindung; gerade nach Mass 
dieser Empfindung ist er Genie. ... Ist sein Gefiihl inniger, es wird tiefer Verstand, 
inniges, vielleicht langsames Gedachtnis, gliihende, nicht aufwallende Einbildung, 
eine Art tiefsinnigen Witzes und Scharfsinnes. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 322. 

Conjectures (p. 5 1) : Some are pupils of nature only, nor go farther to school. 
From such we reap often a double advantage: they not only rival the 
reputation of the great ancient authors, but also reduce the number of 
mean ones among the moderns. 

1767: Jene, die Alten, welche die Werke der Kunst erst erfanden, gingen mit ihrem 
Genie auf der Bahn der Natur unbekummert fort. Sie hatten kein anderes Muster 
als die Natur und das idealische Schone, das sich ihrem Verstande darstellte. Dieses 
driickten sie aus, und wussten von keinen Regeln als von denen, welche der Geschmack 
dem Kiinstler vorschreibt und welche ihn insgeheim leiten, ohne ihn ihre Leitung 
fuhlen zu lassen. Gellert, Vol. X, p. 68. 



120 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1778; Und wo lebt sie (die Dichtkunst) auf solche Weise mehr und anders, als bei 
treuen Schiilern und Kindern der Natur, in Zustanden der sinnlichen Starke und 
Gesundheit, der herzlichen Offenheit, Tatigkeit, Wahrheit. Wo Kunst an die Stelle 
der Natur tritt, und an die Stelle der Menschheit Gesellschaft; da ist, wie alle lebendige 
Wahrheit der grossen Schopfung Gottes, so auch ihre Dolmetscherin und Freundin, 
Poesie, verbannt oder entstellt und zur Liignerin, was sie nicht sein kann und nie 
sein sollte, erniedrigt. Wo alles Zwang, Sitte, Konvention ist, soils sie auch werden; 
mithin ist ihre beste Ader tot, von ihrem gottlichen Feuer ein Haufchen Asche ubrig. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 343. 

Conjectures (p. 49): Genius is a master- workman, learning is but an 
instrument; and an instrument, though most valuable, yet not always 
indispensable. — A genius differs from a good understanding, as a magician 
from a good architect; that raises his structure by means invisible; 
this by the skilful use of common tools. 

1767: Vielleicht wird er die Nachbildungen der Alten gegen ihr Original und ihre 
Nebengemalde halten und den grossen Zweck ausfuhren : ein Odengenie in die magische 
Werkstatt des Apolls und in den Geist seiner Muster einzufiihren. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 466. 

1768: Seine Einbildungskraft ist reich, fruchtbar, rhapsodisch und auf eine edle Art 
unbandig: nicht immer ein Baumeister, der wohlgeordnete Gebaude errichtet; aber 
eine Zauberin, die an den Boden schlagt, und siehe! plotzlich sind wir mitten unter 
prachtigen Materialien. Sie riihrt sie an, und siehe! diese bewegen sich, heben sich, 
verbinden sich, ordnen sich: undo Wunder! da ensteht wie von selbst, oder vielmehr 
durch eine unsichtbare Kraft vor unsern Augen ein Pallast, prachtig, gross, bezau- 
bernd, nur nicht nach der Kunst der Vitruve und Vicenti. 

Herder, Vol. II, p. 291. 

1769: Gottliche Poesie! geistige Kunst des Schonen! Konigin aller Ideen aus alien 
Sinnen! ein Sammelplatz aller Zaubereien aller Kiinste! Herder, Vol. IV, p. 167. 

1778: Nun sind der Gaben so viel als Menschen auf der Erde sind, und in alien Men- 
schen ist gewissermassen auch nur eine Gabe, Erkenntnis und Empfindung, d. i. 
inneres Leben der Apperception und Elasticitat der Seele. Wo dies da ist, ist Genie, 
und mehr Genie, wo es mehr, und weniger, wo es weniger ist. Nur dies innere Leben 
der Seele gibt der Einbildung, dem Gedachtnis, dem Witz, dem Scharfsinn, und wie 
man weiter zahle, Ausbreitung, Tiefe, Energie, Wahrheit. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, pp. 222 f. 

Conjectures (p. 52): In the fairyland of fancy genius may wander wild; 
there it has a creative power, and may reign arbitrarily over its own 
empire of chimeras. The wide field of nature also lies open before it, 
where it may range unconfined, make what discoveries it can, and sport 
with its infinite objects uncontrolled, as far as visible nature extends, 
painting them as wantonly as it will. 

1762: Natur und Schrift also sind die Materialien des schonen schaffenden, nach- 
ahmenden Geistes. Hamann, Vol. II, p. 292. 



APPENDIX II 121 

1766: . . . allein das wird man auch nicht verkennen, dass eine reiche Einbildungs- 
kraft und ein schopferischer Geist zu Erdichtungen nicht seine grossten Talente 
gewesen. Herder, Vol. IV, p. 239. 

1767: . . . mit einer neuen, schopferischen, fruchtbaren und kunstvollen Hand. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 429. 

1767: ... die Einkleidung poetisch tauschend und schopferisch ist. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 438. 

1767: . . . die Schopfungskraft seiner Einbildung, die Zauberquelle zu Erdichtungen, 
.... Herder, Vol. I, p. 475. 

1768: . . . eine neue Welt voll Materie, Interesse und poetischer Bezauberung. 

Herder, Vol. II, p. 188. 

1768: Die Amazone ist ein poetisches Geschopf, ohne Zeit und Ort, . . . eine Tochter 
der Phantasie voll Leben und Glanz und wildem, beinahe Shakespearischem Feuer! 

Herder, Vol. II, p. 187. 

1770: Der Geist, der immer um die Eleganz buhlt, schwacht sich und verliert die 
grosze Schopferkraft des Genies. Schleswigsche Liter atur brief e, p. 347. 

1772: Das Meisterstiick des schopferischen Pinsels. Hamann, Vol. IV, p. 30. 

1773: . . . das schopferische Genie Shakespeares. Herder, Vol. V, p. 247. 

1773: Shakespeare . . . nahm Geschichte, wie er sie fand, und setzte mit Schopfer- 
geist das verschiedenartigste Zeug zu einem Wunderganzen zusammen. 

Herder, Vol. V, pp. 218 f. 

1775: Alles Genie (sagt Kant) hat zum Talent eine schopferische Imagination; dieses 
gibt uns allerlei Verbindungen von Ideen, worunter der Verstand wahlen kann/ 

Schlapp, Kanls Lehre vom Genie, p. 253. 

Conjectures (p. 67 f .) : However, as it [Addison's Cato] is, like Pygmalion, 
we can not but fall in love with it and wish it were alive. How would 
a Shakespeare, or an Otway, have answered our wishes? They would 
have outdone Prometheus, and, with their heavenly fire, have given 
him not only life, but immortality. 

1767: . . . statt ein Pygmalion seines Autors zu werden, .... 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 249. 

1767: Weil es aber gefahrlich ist, als ein zweiter Prometheus den elektrischen Funken 
vom Himmel selbst zu holen; weil es schwerer ist, Kiinstler als ein Sophist iiber die 
Kunst zu sein,. . . so ist der Mittelweg die gewohnliche Strasze. 

Herder, Vol. I, p. 256. 

1768-69: Die Statue mit zusammenstehenden Fiiszen, anliegenden Handen, geradem, 
bewegungslosem Leibe, kann auch der unbeseelte Leim sein, aus dem Prometheus noch 
erst einen Menschen schaffen will. Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 100. 

1769: . . . und so lese ich euch auch, als Maler, als Schilderer; nicht als Dichter, 
nicht als zweiter Prometheus, nicht als Schopfer unsterblicher Gotter und sterblicher 
Menschen. Herder, Vol. Ill, p. 103. 



122 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1770: Pindar ist ein Beispiel, was aus einer Sache wird, wenn sie ein Dichter behandelt. 
Das Zeug, das er bearbeitete, war nichts weniger als erhaben. Er aber schuf Gott- 
heiten aus Leim und hauchte sie an mit dem warmen Leben seiner Seele. Ich werde 
zufrieden sein, wenn dieser Feuergeist nicht ganz aus meiner Ubersetzung erloschen 
ist. Schlcswigsche Liter aturbriefe, p. 345. 

1772: Was sind die Meisterstucke unserer stolzen Vernunft als Nachahmungen und 
Entwicklungen ihres Instinkts, das geborgte Feuer aller schonen, freien und geadelten 
Kiinste als ein prometheisches Plagium des urspriinglich tierischen Naturlichtes? 

Hamann, Vol. IV, p. 16. 

1778: Alles ist ihnen angeboren, eingepflanzt, der Funke untriiglicher Vernunft, ohne 
einen Prometheus, vom Himmel gestohlen. Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 198. 

Conjectures (p. 61): His mighty mind travelled around the intellectual 
world, and, with a more than eagle's eye saw and has pointed out blank 
spaces or dark spots in it on which the human mind never shone. Some 
of these have been enlightened since; some are benighted still. 

1767: Es gibt in dem Reiche der schonen Wissenschaften, wie auf der Erdkugel, 
unangebaute, auch ganz unentdeckte Gegenden; und kein grosses Genie darf verzagen, 
dass es nicht Neues werde unternehmen konnen. Gellert, Vol. X, p. 81. 

Conjectures (p. 62) : Since a marvelous light, unenjoyed of old, is poured 
on us by revelation, with larger prospects extending our understanding, 
with brighter objects enriching our imagination, with an inestimable 
prize setting our passions on fire, thus strengthening every power that 
enables composition to shine. 

1762: Leidenschaft allein gibt Abstraktionen sowohl als Hypothesen Hande, Fiisse, 
Fliigel; — Bildern und Zeichen Geist, Leben und Zunge. . . . Wo sind schnellere 
Schlusse ? Wo wird der rollende Donner der Beredsamkeit erzeugt, und sein Geselle 
— der einsilbige Blitz? Hamann, Vol. II, p. 87. 

1762: Empfangnis und Geburt neuer Ideen und neuer Ausdriicke . . . liegen im 
fruchtbaren Schosse der Leidenschaften vor unseren Sinnen vergraben. 

Hamann, Vol. II, p. 88. 

1766: . . . Munterkeit und Feuer im Denken, ... ein empfindbares und geflihl- 
volles Herz. Herder, Vol. I, p. 53. 

1767: Zwar die Regeln selbst waren leicht zu machen; sie lehren nur, was geschehen 
soil, ohne zu sagen, wie es geschehen soil. Der Ausdruck der Leidenschaften, auf 
welchen alles dabei ankommt, ist nur einzig das Werk des Genies. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 293. 

1767: Was ein Genie bildet, ist vorziiglicher im Theokrit: Leidenschaft und Empfin- 
dung; was uns Gessner zeigen kann, ist mehr Kunst und Feinheit: Schilderung und 
Sprache. Herder, Vol. I, p. 349. 

1767: So lange unsere Scribenten, ohne vom Feuer des Genies getrieben zu werden, 
ihre Sprache, etc. Schlesmgsche Literaturbriefe, p. 273. 



APPENDIX II 123 

1767: Lukrez ist in meinen Augen nach dem Feuer seiner Bilder einer der ersten Genies 
unter den Romern. Herder, Vol. I, pp. 470 f. 

1769: . . . und es ward eine Wundermusik aller Affekte, eine neue Zaubersprache 
der Empfindung. Hier fand der erste begeistere Tonkunstler tausendfachen Aus- 
druck aller Leidenschaften, den die menschliche Zunge in Jahrhunderten hatte hervor- 
bringen, den die menschliche Seele in Jahrhunderten hatte empfinden konnen. 

Herder, Vol. IV, p. 118. 

1769: . . . und wie ist die ganze Schilderung mit solchen ausgemalten Nebenziigen 
iiberladen — beinahe ein untriigliches Wahrzeichen, dass der Dichter nach der Hand 
eines anderen bearbeitet, dass er nicht aus dem Feuer seiner Fantasie geschrieben. 

Herder, Vol. Ill, p. 70. 

1771-74: Der Mann von Genie empfindet ein begeistertes Feuer, das seine ganze 
Wirksamkeit rege macht; er entdecket in sich selbst Gedanken, Bilder der Fantasie 
und Empfindungen, die andere Menschen in Verwunderung setzen; er selbst bewundert 
sie nicht, weil er sie ohne muhsames Suchen in sich mehr wahrgenommen als erfunden 
hat. Sulzer, Theorie der schonen Kiinsten, Genie. 

Conjectures (p. 62): Tully, Quintilian, and all true critics allow, that 
virtue assists genius and that the writer will be more able when better 
is the man. 

1762: Man kann allerdings ein Mensch sein, ohne dass man notig hat, ein Autor 
zu werden. Wer aber guten Freunden zumutet, dass sie den Schriftsteller ohne den 
Menschen denken sollen, ist mehr zu dichterischen als philosophischen Abstraktionen 
aufgelegt. Hamann, Vol. II, p 267. 

Conjectures (p. 50) : Rules, like crutches, are a needful aid to the lame, 
though an impediment to the strong. A Homer cast them away, and 
like his Achilles, Jura negat sibi nata, nihil non arrogat, by native force 
of mind. 

1759: Was ersetzt bei Homer die Unwissenheit der Kunstregeln, die ein Aristoteles 
nach ihm erdacht, und was bei einem Shakespeare die Unwissenheit oder Ubertretung 
jener kritischen Gesetze? Das Genie, ist die einmlitige Antwort. 

Hamann, Vol. II, p. 38. 

1759: Von diesem Kunststiicke werden aber freilich diejenigen nichts wissen wollen, 
die nur an einem korrekten Racine Geschmack finden und so unglucklich sind, keinen 
Shakespeare zu kennen. Lessing, Vol. VIII, p. 145. 

1767: Das Genie lacht uber all die Grenzscheidungen der Kritik. 

Lessing, Vol. IX, p. 210. 

1768: Wir haben das audi lange so fest geglaubt, dasz bei^unseren Dichtern den Fran- 
zosen nachahmen ebensoviel gewesen ist, als nach den Regeln der Alten arbeiten. 
Indess konnte das Vorurteil nicht ewig gegen unser Gefiihl bestehen. Dieses war 
glucklicherweise durch einige englische Stiicke aus seinem Schlummer erweckt und wir 
machten endlich die Erfahrung, dasz die Tragodie noch einer ganz andern Wirkung 
fahig sei, als ihr Corneille und Racine^zu erteilen 4 vermochten. 

Lessing, Vol. X, p. 215. 



124 young's "conjectures on original composition" 

1768: Das Genie ist nicht gestorben, aber es wird von Regeln, Mustern, von den Ideen 
unserer feinen, kunstrichterischen und stittlichen Zeit gefangen gehalten. Ermattet 
in diesen Banden, in den Armen der Kalypso verweibet, hat es nicht die Nerven seiner 
Starke. Lust und Mut hat es verloren, sie anzustrengen, und auch wider Willen der 
blossen Kunstregeln, im Angesicht aller Censoren von Geschmack . . . ein grosses 
Selbst zu werden. Herder, Vol. II, p. 179. 

1768: . . . denn einen ganzen tragischen Plan gleichsam a priori zu erfinden und von 
der Leidenschaft philosophisch zu abstrahieren, ist nicht der ordentliche Weg, den 
unsere Einbildungskraft nimmt. Vielleicht ist dies die Ursache, warum Regeln kein 
Genie wecken, noch weit weniger schaffen konnen; ja warum sogar die grossten Genies 
ziigel- und regellos sind. Herder, Vol. II, p. 231. 

1769: "Die Regeln, die der Kunstlehrer aus der Iliade aufblattert, fur wen sollen sie 
Regeln sein?" Fiirkeinen! . . . Fur kein Genie, das sich Laufbahn eroffnen, Original- 
flug nehmen kann, und wie die Geistercabbalistik weiter lautet. Sie sollen gar nicht 
Regeln, Beobachtungen sollen sie sein: aufklarende, entwickelnde Philosophic fur 
Philosophen, nicht fur Dichterlinge, nicht fur selbstherrschende Genies. 

Herder, Vol. IV, p. 19. 

1774: Man kann die Regeln wissen; man kann sie durch Fleiss zur Ausiibung bringen; 
und man kann ohne Genie doch nicht weiter als zum Mittelmassigen gelangen. 

Gellert, Vol. VII, p. 130. 

1774: Unglucklicher Gedanke, der nach Regeln schreibt, der ist ein Poet. 

GeUert, Vol. VII, p. 136. 

1778: Die besten Gedichte der Griechen sind aus der Zeit, da noch keine Buchstaben, 
viel weniger geschriebene Regeln waren. Der Dichter sah treu, dachte lange, trug 
mit sich im Herzen, als sein liebes Kind umher: Nun off net er den Mund, nun spricht 
er Wunder, Wahrheit, schaffende Gotterspriiche. Und die Sprache klingt, tont: alle 
Musen helfen ihm den Gesang vollenden. So sang Homer. 

Herder, Vol. VIII, p. 376. 

Conjectures (p. 65): As what comes from the writer's heart reaches ours; 
so what comes from his head sets our brains at work and our hearts at 
ease. It makes a circle of thoughtful critics, not of distressed patients. 

1764-66: Sein Stil ... ist im Feuer der Einbildungskraft hingeworfen, und eben 
dasselbe Gefiihl, damit der Schriftsteller seine Materie empfand, gliiht auch den Leser 
an. Herder, Vol. I, p. 80. 

1767: Das Feuer der Fantasie, in dem der Verfasser dachte und schrieb, aber nicht 
hatte lesen sollen, gliiht jeden Leser an, der es versteht, ein Buch in eine Person, und 
tote Buchstaben in Sprache zu verwandeln; alsdann hort man und denkt und fuhlt 
mit dem Autor. Herder, Vol. I, p. 222. 

1767: Aber wie viel leichter ist es, eine Schnurre zu iibersetzen, als eine Empfindung. 
Das Lacherliche kann der Witzige und Unwitzige nachsagen; aber die Sprache des 
Herzens kann nur das Herz treffen. Lessing, Vol. LX, p. 265. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Addison (Joseph), Spectator, London, 1898. 
Adventurer (The), London, 1797. 

Alexander (Sir William), Anacrisis, ed. Spingarn, Vol. III. 
Bacon (Francis), Works, Ellis & Spedding, London, 1889. 

Advancement of Learning, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I. 
Batteux, Les beux arts reduits a un meme principe, Paris, 1747. 
Blackemore (Sir Richard), Preface to Prince Arthur, ed. Spingarn, Vol. III. 
Blackwell (Thomas), An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, London, 1735 
Blair (Hugh), Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, London, 1783. 
Bodmer (Jakob), Deutsche Literaturdenkmale XII. 
Burke (Edmund), Works, Little, Brown, and Co., Boston, 1899. 
Campion, (Thomas), Observations in the Art of English Poesie, London, 1602. 
Casaubon (Meric), A Treatise Concerning Enthusiasme, London, 1655. 
Cibber (Theophilus) , Dissertations. 
Congreve (William), Plays, (Glasgow, 1751). 

A Pindarique Ode — to which is prefixed a Discourse on the 
Pindarique Ode, London, 1706. 
Cowley (Abraham), Poems, London, 1656. 

Dennis (John), An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare, with some 
Letters of Criticism to the Spectator, London, 1712. 

The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, London, 1701. 

The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, London, 1704. 

The Impartial Critic: or, Some Observations upon "A Short View 
of Tragedy," London, 1693. 

Original Letters, Familiar, Moral, and Critical, London, 1721. 
Dillon (Wentworth), Essay on Translated Verse, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II. 
Drayton (Michael), Epistle to Reynolds, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I. 
Dryden (John), Essays, ed. W. P. Ker, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1900. 
Duff (William), An Essay on Original Genius, London, 1767. 
Duncombe (William), Preface to the Poems of John Hughes. 
Ellwood (Thomas), Autobiography, Arber, English Garner, Vol. III. 
Free Thinker (The). 

Gellert (C. F.), Schriften, Bern, 1772-76. 

Gerstenberg (H. W. von), Briefe iiber die Merkwurdigkeiten der Literatur, Deutsche 
Literaturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, 
Vols. 29-30. 
Gundolph (Friedrich), Shakespeare und der deutsche Geist, Berlin, 1911. 
Hamann (J. G.), Schriften, Friedrich Roth, Berlin, 1821-42. 
Hamelius (Paul), Die Kritik in der englischen Literatur des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 

Leipzig, 1897. 
Harrington (Sir John), Translation of Orlando Furioso, 1591. 
Helvetius (C. A.), De L'Esprit, Amsterdam & Leipzig, 1759. 

Herbert (George), The Life and works of, ed. Palmer, Boston and New York, 1907. 
Herder (J. F.), Sammtliche Werke, ed. Bernhard Suphan, Halle, 1877. 
Hobbes (Thomas), Works, ed. Molesworth, London, 1839-45. 



126 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Hogart (William), Analysis of Beauty, Silver Lotus Shop, Pittsfield, Mass., 1909. 
Home (Henry, Lord Karnes), Elements of Criticism, A. Mills, New York, 1838. 
Horace, Art of Poetry, English Poets, Vol. XIX. 

Howard (Sir Robert), Preface to Four New Plays, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II. 
Hughes (John), Style. 

Preface to Political Touchstone of Trojano Boccalini. 
Hume (David), A Treatise of Human Nature, London, 1886. 
Hurd (R.), Reflections on Originality in Authors, London, 1766. 
Junius, Letters, Boston, 1846. 

Keightley (Thomas), Life, Opinions, and Writings of John Milton, London, 1855. 
Kind, (John L.), Edward Young in Germany, Columbia University Press, New York, 

1906. 
La Bruyere, Caracteres, Des Ouvrages de 1'Esprit, Spingarn, Introd., Vol. I. 
Lessing (Gotthold Ephraim), Samtliche Schriften, ed. Karl Lachmann, Stuttgart, 1886. 
Locke (John), Works, London, 1823. 

Longinus, On the Sublime, ed. by W. R. Roberts, Cambridge, 1899. 
Lowth (Robert), Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, transl. by G. Gregory, 

London, 1839. 
Mauvillon (Eleazar), Lettres Francaises et Germaniques, London, 1740. 
Milton (John), Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, 1899. 

A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous 

Works of Milton, London, 1738. 
Nordischer Aufseher, Kopenhagen und Leipzig, 1758-61. 
Opitz (Martin), Buch von der deutschen Poeterei, Neudrucke deutscher Literatur- 

werke, Halle, 1876. 
Peacham (Henry), Of Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I. 
Phillips (Edward), Theatrum Poetarum, London, 1675. 
Pope (Alexander), Works, Elwin and Courthope, London, 1871-89. 
Reynolds (Henry), Mythomystes, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I. 
Schlapp (Dr. Otto), Kants Lehre vom Genie und die Entstehung der "Kritik der 

Urteilskraft," Gottingen, 1901. 
Shaftesbury (Ashley Cooper, Earl of), Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, 

Times, London, 1714. 
Sheffield (John), An Essay upon Poetry, ed. Spingarn, Vol. I. 
Spingarn (J. E.), Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 

1908. 
Sprat (Thomas), Life and Writings of Cowley, ed. Spingarn, Vol. II. 
Steele (Richard), Tatler, London, 1814. 

Stein (Dr. K. H. von), Die Entstehung der neueren Asthetik, Stuttgart, 1886. 
Sulzer, Allgemeine Theorie der schonen Kunste, Leipzig, 1771. 
Temple (Sir William), An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern Learning; Of Poetry, 

ed. Spingarn, Vol. III. 
Thomas (Walter), Le Poete Edward Young, Hachette & Co., Paris, 1901. 
Vida, Art of Poetry, English Poets, Vol. XIX. 

Warton (Joseph), An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, London, 1806. 
Warton (Thomas), Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser, London, 1807. 
Webbe (William), A Discourse of English Poetry, English Reprints, 1895. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 127 

Weber (Dr. Heinrich), Hamann und Kant, Miinchen, 1904. 
Weingarten (Hermann), Die Revolutionskirche Englands, Leipzig, 1868. 
Welsted (Leonard), A Discourse to Sir Robert Walpole, London, 1727. 
Epistles, Odes, etc., London, 1724. 
The Works in Verse and Prose, London, 1787. 
Wesley (John), Journal. 

Winkelmann (Johann), Samtliche Werke, ed. Joseph Eiselein, 1825. 
Wolseley (Robert), Preface to Valentinian, Spingarn, Vol. III. 
Wotton (William), Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, ed. Spingarn, 

Vol. III. 
Young (Edward), Complete Works, 2 vols., ed. John Doran, London, 1854. 



Americana Germanica 

Monograph Series 

1. Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741 -IS 10. By 
Edward Ziegler Davis, Ph. D. 234 pp. Price $1.65 

2. The Harmony Society. A Chapter in German American Culture History. 

By John Archibald Bole, Ph. D. 179 pp. _ 30 Illustrations. Price $1.50 

3. Fricdrich Schiller in America. A Contribution to the Literature of the 

Poet's Centenary, 1905. By Ellwood Comly Parry, Ph. D. 117 pp. 

Price $1.25 

4. The Influence of Salomon Gcssncr upon English Literature. By Bertha 

Reed. 119 pp. Price $1.25 

5. The German Settlement Society of Philadelphia and Its Colony, Hermann, 

Missouri. By William G. Bek. 193 pp. Price $1.50 

6. Philipp Waldeck's Diary of the American Revolution. With Introduction 

and Photographic Reproductions. By M. D. Learned. 168 pp. 

Price $1-50 

7. Schwenkf elder Hymnology and the Sources of the First Schwenkf elder 

Hymn-Book Printed in America. With Photographic Reproduc- 
tions. By Allen Anders Seipt, Ph. D. 112 pp. Price $2.00 

8. The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of Ger- 

man Descent. B. J. Hanno Deiler. With Illustrations. 136 pp. 

Price $1.25 

9. Early German Music in Philadelphia. By R. R. Drummond, Ph. D. 

112 pp. Price $1.25 

10 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in Germany. By Grace Edith MacLean, Ph. D. 

102 pp. Price $1.50 

11. The Germans in Texas. A Study in Immigration. By Gilbert Giddings 

Benjamin, Ph. D. 161 pp. 3 Illustrations. Price $1.50 

12. The American Ethnographical Survey. Conestoga Expedition. M. D. 

Learned, Director $2.00 

13. Swedish Settlements on the Delaware 1638-1664. With 6 Maps and 150 

Illustrations and Photographic Reproductions. By Amandus John- 
son, Ph. D. Two volumes, 908 pp. Price ; $10.00 

14. National Unity in the German Novel Before 1870. By Roy H. Perring, 

Ph. D. 75 pp. Price $1.25 

15. Journal of Du Roi the Elder, Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Service of 

the Duke of Brunswick, 1776-1778. Translated by Charlotte S. J. 
Epping. 189 pp. Price $1.50 

16. The Life and Works of Fricdrich Armand Strubberg. By Preston A. 

Barba, Ph. D. 151 pp. 4 Illustrations. Price $2.00 

17. Balduin Mollhausen, the German Cooper. By Preston A. Barba, Ph. D. 

188 pp. 4 Illustrations. Price $2.00 

18. Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans. By Edwin M. 

Fogel, Ph. D. 386 pp. Price $3.50 

18. Dickens' Einfluss aiif Ungem-Slemberg, Hesslein, Stolle, Raabe und 
Ebner-Esckenbach. By J. Theodor Geissendoerfer, Ph. D. 51 pp. 
Price $1.00 

20. Whitlier's Relation to German Life and Thought. By Iola Kay Eastburn, 

Ph. D. 161 pp. Price $2.00 

21. Benjamin Franklin and Germany. By Beatrice Maiguerite Victory. 

Ph. D. 180 pp. Price $2.00 

22. Deutschamerikanische Patriotische Lyrik der Achtundvierziger und I hit 

Historische Grundlage. By Gottlieb Betz, Ph. D. 131 pp. Price $1.50 

23. Heine in America. By H. B. Sachs, Ph. D. 193 pp. Price $2.00 

24. Socialsim in German American Literature. By William Frederic Kam- 

man, Ph. D. 124 pp. Price $1.50 

25. Robert Reitzel. By Adolf E. Zucker, Ph. D. 74 pp. Price $1.25 

26. The German Element in Brazil. Colonies and Dialect. By B. F. Scha- 

pelle. Price $2.00 

27. Kunze's Seminarium and the Society for the Propagation of Christianity 

and Useful Knowledge among the Germans of America. By C. F. 
Haussmann. Illustrated. Price $2.00 

28. Edward Young's 'Conjectures on Original Composition' in England and 

Germany. By Martin W. Steinke, Ph.D. Price $1.25 



Americana Germanica 



MONOGRAPHS DEVOTED TO THE 
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE 



Literary, Linguistic and Other Cultural Relations 
of Germany and America 



EDITOR 
MARION DEXTER LEARNED 

University of Pennsylvania 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

H. C. Brandt J. T. Hatfield 

W. H. Carruth W. T. Hewett 

Hermann Collitz A. R. Hohlfeld 

Starr W. Cutting Hugo K. Schilling 

Daniel K. Dodge H. Schmidt-Wartenberg 

A. B. Faust Hermann Schoenfeld 

Kuno Francke Calvin Thomas 

Adolph Gerber H. S. White 

Julius Goebel Henry Wood 
















9 <%> 



,9 v 






**\>J^\ <?.*££;% A^/tmkX <?*£tik °* 

V^r-\^ 





«* ^L-K A* * 



C,vT 



> A V VV . 







• A>"^ J ' 








,«°* : 



, • <V> A * . 




%S 



W 



'.' >»*♦. '. 




>y i^ o 



; A ^ V \ \|i£K ; / s \ --s 



**.*,>« ?£M££+ *r,& °\*^W" *^^ ; "-'- 



^0 



+ & 
H -, 






^ ^ * 

v^ 



^ , * T^K A^ * 










^ , 





°^ * • - ° a <t* "* & % • ■ ° a ^ • ' ' <y 


















t * «? ^, «^ 





















. •• <f \ \^ 














£*> 



^*#' 



A 



C/ vf 










1 • A V "^. : 














mi 



